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I am interested in the currently achievable levels of privacy on an Android device. As far as I understand it, the best one can do is not to activate a Google account. However, even then significant data is leaked to Google, as illustrated by a Florida law suite. There appears to be some controversy on the subject, as some sources claim location tracking only starts after users explicitly agree to send the information. Can someone shed some light on this? Is this location information sent to Google by default? On all types of smartphones?

Short of not activating a Google account, the second best option is to do the following:

  • create a new, dedicated Google account and associate the device with it
  • disable contacts, mail, calendar, background data sync and autosync (as described in this question)

If the account is only directly used to access the Market, what kind of communication takes place between Google and the device? Can anyone provide a URL to official ("looking"?) documentation on the subject?

In short, I am looking for an answer which provides a comprehensive list of the kinds of information exchange which take place between a cell phone with a new Google account and Google. If you provide a better strategy to reduce the amount of information shared (other than rooting), so much the better.

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Tomislav Nakic-Alfirevic
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    This seems like 2 different questions to me: 1. Which data get's send to Google and 2. Can I achieve privacy with an separate account for my Android device? The law suite is just accusing Google, there isn't any sentence yet. And it doesn't look reputable to me. I really doubt location data is sent if you don't agree to it. Google has stated their privacy policy on various sites ( e.g. http://www.google.com/mobile/privacy.html). It's up to you to believe them or not. If you want to be really safe, use a vanilla Android ROM (AOSP) without the Google Services Framework. – Flow Dec 31 '11 at 13:39
  • Indeed, it can be seen as 2 different questions. I hope this doesn't prevent people from answering. As for the law suit, I am obviously unable to go into details of a suite in the USA, but the fact that someone is betting their time and money because they are convinced personal data is being leaked was strong enough for me to reference the article. It is by no means the only such article, by the way. – Tomislav Nakic-Alfirevic Jan 01 '12 at 19:50
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    Problem is: I tried exactly what the question described. But once after a factory-reset I forgot to explicitly de-activate contacts/calendar sync, so after importing my data they were up in the cloud (so much about "opt-in"). Which means: As long as Android does not "sign" for "privacy by default", your "anonymous account" might not stay anonymous for long -- unless you really go the way Flow described. Which with many devices and in many places would void your warranty. Leaving aside the trouble you'll most like run into when looking for, installing, or using apps... – Izzy Mar 25 '13 at 20:31

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