Cell phones running Android software gather data about the user's location and send it back to Google – even when the device's location services is turned off, Quartz reported Tuesday.
The data collection has been going on since the beginning of 2017, Quartz reported. Google confirmed the practice.
The data was never used or stored, a Google spokesperson told the outlet; the company also said Google plans to stop collecting such data by the end of November.
The practice is troubling for people who would prefer they were not tracked – in particular, law-enforcement officials or victims of domestic abuse who turn off location services, the outlet noted.
"It has pretty concerning implications," Bill Budington, a software engineer who works for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for digital privacy, told Quartz.
"You can kind of envision any number of circumstances where that could be extremely sensitive information that puts a person at risk."
While Google says it does not use the location data it collects using this service, it does allow advertisers to target consumers using location data, Quartz noted.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.