Google has been reluctant to send personal information about smartphone users who use Android, its operating system (OS), to Google`s headquarters without much consent. Domestic users were also subject to such information collection without exception.

According to foreign news sources such as Quartz in the United States on the 22nd of this year, from the beginning of this year, regardless of the consent of the users of the Android phone, they collected their personal location information and sent it to the Google server automatically. This information collection is being done even when the user has turned off the location service in the smartphone, and there is a controversy about collecting unauthorized personal information.

The smart phone communicates with the nearest mobile base station to the user, allowing Google to send and receive phone calls, and Google has revealed that it has collected the base station information (cell ID code). Knowing this base station information can track the location of smartphone users at a radius of several hundred meters. In Korea, it is the first technique used when a police officer is looking for a party in an emergency such as a rescue, but it is likely that the wavelength will be increased as it collects sensitive personal information, location data, with unclear intent.

"Android phones need a network synchronization system that uses mobile country code (MCC) and mobile network code (MNC) to quickly receive messages and notifications," said an official from Google Korea. And an option to use the cell ID code as an additional signal to improve performance, but this code was not integrated into the Google network synchronization system, and the data was discarded each time it arrived and never used at all. " . A Google representative said that the current system update did not ask for a "cell ID code" anymore.

According to the Korea Local Information Act, collecting location information without user consent is subject to criminal prosecution such as imprisonment or fine. Earlier, Google created a photo-mapping service called `Street View` in Korea in 2014, and it was found out that it collected unauthorized personal information of Wi-Fi network.

In October, a malfunction occurred in a Google Home Mini device, an AI speaker, that caused users to record random conversations in their homes and controversy over privacy. At the time, Google said in a statement, "I want people to have peace of mind while using the Google Home Mini."

An official of the Korea Communications Commission`s Personal Information Infringement Survey said, "We plan to identify and investigate what information Google has collected."

By Jin Hyun Jin 2jinhj@


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