And you thought you could turn off Google!

You switched off your location. But still get a heavy traffic alert on your Android mobile just before leaving office. Ever wondered how and why?

That is because big brother Google is always watching over you whether you want it or not, shows a trending research by Vanderbilt University professor Douglas C. Schmidt.

Google's “passive” means of data collection, whereby its platforms and applications are instrumented to gather information while they are running in the background, possibly without the user’s knowledge. Apart from Android and Chrome, these inlcude Search, YouTube, Maps Google Analytics, AdSense AdMob, and AdWords, the 55-pages research paper points out.

At a time when public attention has been focused on Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, the research allures to the fact that the extent and magnitude of Google’s passive data collection has largely been overlooked till now helping $110 billion Alphabet to avoid scrutiny about its data collection practices.

Coming close on the heels of an investigative report by the Associated Press showing that many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store user location data even if they have used a privacy setting that says it will prevent Google from doing so, the paper by Professor Schmidt is generating further consternation and scrutiny among users about the search giant's practices.

But then some are suggesting taking the findings with a pinch of salt considering the study has been funded by Digital Content Next (DCN) a lobby of digital content companies set up by the Online Publishers Association (OPA). Quite understandably, Google has reportedly trashed the research stating it has been written by Vanderbilt who is a witness for Oracle in a case against Google and working for a lobby known to be against it.

While the research does not throw up anything that was not known earlier, what it does do quite effectively is throw up the magnitude and methodology of how Google goes about collecting this data.

These results highlighted the fact that Android and Chrome platforms are critical vehicles for Google’s data collection.

The key findings include:
- A dormant, stationary Android phone (with the Chrome browser active in the background) communicated location information to Google 340 times during a 24-hour period, or at an average of 14 data communications per hour. In fact, location information constituted 35 percent of all the data samples sent to Google.
- Moreover, an idle Android phone running the Chrome browser sends back to Google nearly fifty times as many data requests per hour as an idle iOS phone running Safari.
- An idle Android device communicates with Google nearly 10 times more frequently as an Apple device communicates with Apple servers.
- Google has the ability to associate anonymous data collected through passive means with the personal information of the user.
- A major part of Google’s data collection occurs while a user is not directly engaged with any of its products. The magnitude of such collection is significant, especially on Android mobile devices, arguably the most popular personal accessory now carried 24/7 by more than 2 billion people.