It sends anonymized data of every website on the internet, when you access it, and it also monitors the apps you use (probably because it intercepts their web traffic.) So basically Facebook knows what you do.
Google collects a lot of data [3], including app and website usage [2] too. They have full access all the analytics a phone OS can provide, after all.
I'm not saying this is ok, but if we claim this is malware then Android is malware too. I rather reserve the malware label to software that is directly designed to harm.
PS: Apple collects app usage too [1], but IMO they're at least more clear about it.
[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202100
[2] https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols
[3] https://privacy.google.com/your-data.html
EDIT: Why the downvote? Rather than downvoting, some constructive discussion on spyware and business practices would be IMO more welcome.
Sure, it is. Or spyware, at least. So is Windows.
> I rather reserve the malware label to software that is directly designed to harm.
Stealing data is harmful. I mean, consider the OpenSSH user enumeration vulnerability.
It is? Android is completely ridden with dark patterns[1].
You can narrowly define malware by a quick dictionary definition[1]:
> software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems.
However, malware also has a much looser definition[2] if we don't restrict ourselves to a one sentence Google result:
> Programs officially supplied by companies can be considered malware if they secretly act against the interests of the computer user. For example, Sony sold the Sony rootkit, which contained a Trojan horse embedded into CDs that silently installed and concealed itself on purchasers' computers with the intention of preventing illicit copying. It also reported on users' listening habits, and unintentionally created vulnerabilities that were then exploited by unrelated malware.
Now people defend almost the same practices (in a nicer package) on Hacker News.
We are truly fucked.