Instructions

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco August 13 2018
Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to. An Associated Press investigation found that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you've used privacy settings that say they will prevent it from doing so. Computer science researchers at Princeton confirmed these findings at the AP's request. For the most part, Google is upfront about asking permission to use your location information. An app like Google Maps will remind you to allow access to location if you use it for navigating. If you agree to let it record your location over time, Google Maps will display that history for you in a "timeline" that maps out your daily movements. Storing your minute-by—minute travels carries privacy risks and has been used by police to determine the location of suspects - such as a warrant that police in North Carolina, served on Google last year to find devices near a murder scene. So the company will let you "pause' a setting called Location History. Google says this will prevent the company from remembering where you have been. Google’s support page on the subject states. "You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored”. That isn’t true. Even with Location History paused, some Google apps automatically store time — stamped location data without asking. For example, Google stores a snapshot of where you are when you merely open its Maps app. Automatic daily weather updates on Android phones pinpoint roughly where you are. And some searches that have nothing to do with location, like “chocolate chip cookies" or "kids science kits," pinpoint your precise latitude and longitude — accurate to the square foot and save it to the Google account. The privacy issue affects some two billion users of devices that run Google's Android operating software and hundreds of millions of world wide iPhone users who rely on Google for maps or search. Storing location data in violation of a user’s preferences is wrong, said Ionathon Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist. A researcher from Mayer’s lab confirmed the AP's findings; the AP conducted its own tests on several iPhones that found the same behaviour. “If you are going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History‘, then all the places where you maintain ‘Location History' should be turned off," Mayer said. "That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have”. Google says it is being perfectly clear. "There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including: Location History, Web and App activity and through device-level Location Services" a Google spokesperson said. "We provide clear descriptions of these tools, and robust controls, so people can turn them on and off, and delete their histories at any time." To stop Google from saving these location markers, the company says, users can turn off another setting, one that does not specifically reference location information. Called "Web and App activity" and enabled by default, that setting stores a variety of information from Google apps and websites to your Google account. When paused, it will prevent activity on any device from being saved to your account But leaving "Web and App activity” on and turning "Location History" off only prevents Google from adding your movements to the "timeline", its visualization of your daily travels. It does not stop Google’s collection of other location markers.

Question 98

How many users does the privacy issue affect?

Solution

As mentioned in the passage, two billion users and hundreds of millions of iPhone users are being affected by the privacy issue.

Answer is option B.


Create a FREE account and get:

  • All Quant Formulas and shortcuts PDF
  • 170+ previous papers with solutions PDF
  • Top 5000+ MBA exam Solved Questions for Free

cracku

Boost your Prep!

Download App