Interesting, so 350MB of data per month is abuse, iPhones 175MB per month isn't. I guess Google now has to half their data use for it to be at parity with Apple and we're all fine?
That said, the right amount of auto transfer of content should be close to 0,a few bytes to notify of updates may be reasonable. Certainly we don't need to have books-worth of software and content transferred without the phone's owner agreeing with that agreement used with extremely narrow scope (I use the word owner here colloquially, as the user paid for the phone).
Stop the abuse of "could" and begin questioning with "should."
That kinda supposes it's content the user wants. But what if it's data, like ads, that the user doesn't exactly want but they're going to get anyway? I don't know where the lawsuit will end up, but I can see this ending up as a buried, default-on, setting that most users will never change.
I assume that the under active use category is covered broadly by the terms of Google, Apple, and any other application you’re using. While that may be an actual problem, it also might not be a legal problem given how the contracts are defined today.
If you don’t like this, then you’ll need to advocate for actual laws. Otherwise, this is the best attack that can be waged against this type of behavior today and is why people appear to be “okay with” the current usage in the general case. You’re only going to see “not okay with” if a lawyer thinks they can actually win a case.
TLS connection setup is ~10k so if do an 1 HTTPS call/telemetry that's 48 calls home/hour. (11,600/10k = 1,160 https connections/day. There's 1440 minutes/day) Of basically calling home every minute and sending not much.
Ok calling home every minute...but maybe when idle that's not bad for notification updates?
We run long do running TLS connections using MQTT, this works for 5-6 figure of units. And our actual usage when we have good cell coverage is around 25megs/mo, including data. But when you have the qty Google and iOS have....maybe that's prohibitive?
In which case the suit would incorrectly be blaming the store, instead of the real app that is sending the data.
What I want now is an open source Android device where I have controls.
The #1 things I want to control is app permissions. I should be able to shut them down. If an app "needs" my location, it should get a random spot in the world. If it "needs" my contacts, it should get an empty list. If an app "needs" my network, it should see that it's offline.
The #2 thing I want to control is data going out.
#3 is having security updates forever, rather than sudden EOL with no notice.
I think someone should fork Android and do that. Ironically, I think several Chinese companies are well-positioned to do that, from a market perspective, but not from a cultural perspective.
Does anyone have any open-source suggestions for DIY deep-packet analysis?
Android AppManager [0] (if you're willing to spend the time configuring it via the command line) might help here.
> If an app "needs" my location, it should get a random spot in the world. If it "needs" my contacts, it should get an empty list.
Some Chinese OEMs do have these features. I know ColorOS (Oppo and Realme) does.
> If an app "needs" my network, it should see that it's offline.
Android 11 natively exposes ability to firewall apps individually. All major Chinese OEMs (Xiaomi, Oppo, Realme, OnePlus, Vivo) have supported this for a long time.
> The #2 thing I want to control is data going out.
There are two or three no-root firewall solutions on the PlayStore (disclaimer: I built one, too).
> #3 is having security updates forever, rather than sudden EOL with no notice.
Legacy devices may have other problems than what an Android distribution can address: https://grapheneos.org/faq#legacy-devices
An iPhone with Apple's Safari browser open in the background transmits only about a tenth of that amount to Apple, according to the complaint.
But, you could be right.
A 2x multiplier barely reaches the level of noteworthy. I look forward to my $12 class action payout, but let's be honest, this isn't going anywhere, and would almost certainly be a bad precedent. Legally requiring premature optimization would be the real world result of a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs. I can't imagine a result that would actually inhibit Google from continuing to advertise to you.
Which seems like the point of class action lawsuits and far more significant than most of them.
So the case is purely about whether it's too much logging data, not whether there is any logs at all. And since we measure that logging in actual bits sent over the air, then yes, it comes down to a technical spec.
I would be absolutely shocked if the court ruled as you suggest. That would be tantamount to suggesting that the business model of every website is illegal.
iphones i have set up use about 30MB per month for "System Services" dont know how much of that is from real usage vs. telemetry an stuff.
If there is any OS level telemetry it would fall under general which for my iPhone is 105MB in total since I activated it about a year ago. In general over a year+ (11 Pro Max) its 2.5GB with software updates and document sync accounting for over half of it both of which can be explicitly set to use WiFi only same goes for most other services as well.
Just to put things into perspective my total mobile data usage on this iPhone is 253GB, all system services is 1% of that.