Additionally, Google collects user data from sources like directory services, marketing partners, and security partners as well as from publicly accessible sources. The IT department gathers content that users generate, publish, or receive from others as well as user-provided data such as phone numbers or payment information (account and contact details).
Moreover, certain platform data as well as usage, activity, and location data are gathered.
Unique identifiers, device details, and configuration options, information about the mobile network (such as the name and contact information for the carrier), and IP addresses are all included in platform data and platform usage data.
In order to offer information about the device and its connection to services, some Android-powered devices periodically communicate with Google servers about this data.
Future Improvements in Data Protection
Google and Apple recently announced and partially implemented curbs on site and app monitoring in response to the lack of data privacy. With the launch of its Intelligent Tracking Prevention program in September 2017, Apple started to block third-party cookies in the Safari browser.
A similar program, the Privacy Sandbox for Chrome, was unveiled by Google in 2023.
Despite the prominence of well-known online platforms in our daily lives, many choices are still kept secret. "It's alarming that we still know so little about companies that know so much about us.", states the US Federal Trade Commission.
Since it is unlikely that online platforms will break with long-standing practices, data protection will continue to be a digital-ethical key driving force for the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals in 2023.
As long as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) exists, the rights of internet users will be protected.
09 February 2022
