Android collects nearly 10 times more user data than iOS, report says

Following the Android location tracking scandal, another research report claims that idle Android devices send nearly 10 times more data to Google than iOS devices send to Apple's servers. According to the research report by Douglas Schmidt, a professor at Vanderbilt University in the United States, published by the industry organization Digital Content Next, tests showed that Android phones with the Chrome browser running in the background sent location data to Google 340 times in 24 hours, about 14 times per hour.

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Location data accounts for 35% of all data traffic sent by Android phones to Google.

When idle, an Android phone with Chrome running in the background sends data to Google at nearly 50 times the rate of an iPhone running Safari. With Safari, Google can't collect as much data from the browser or its host device unless the user is actively using it, Schmidt said.

Google confirmed last week that it continues to record location data even after the "Location History" setting is disabled. To more completely prevent being tracked, users must also disable a second setting, "Web & App Activity."

Google's practices on location history settings have already sparked a class-action lawsuit, which could theoretically force Google to revise its policies to avoid fines.

Given that Google's main business is advertising and Apple's is hardware, Google relies on different levels of data collection to serve ads. Apple executives have repeatedly touted the company's stance on privacy, sometimes using it as a marketing tactic to attack rivals.