On Wed, 3 Aug 2016 06:34:07 +0000 (UTC), Aardvarks wrote:
Two facts:
a. Deleting the Google Play account removed all mention of the Advertising
ID (AdID) from the Android settings, but the "Google Settings" app icon
remained, which had a menu for the Advertising ID.
b. In addition, deleting and disabling the apps above, wiped out the
"Google Settings" app, so now there is zero mention of any ApID anywhere in
the Android device (that I can find).
One hypothesis for the Android aficionados:
- Have I entirely wiped out the AdID from my non-rooted device?
If not - where is it?
Facts only - not fear mongering.
I rebooted the phone to see if the removal and disabling of the Google Play
Store app and Google Play Services and Google Services Framework would come
back, but they seem to have stayed off upon inspection after reboot.
The great news is that I can't find the Advertising ID anywhere on the
Android system (this is an unrooted phone - so - to my knowledge - I'm the
first one to document this - although I can't be the only one to have
thought of something this simple).
While it seems the Advertising ID is now entirely gone from my Android
phone, one minor gotcha was that *some* of the Google apps fail to work
with the three changes below:
1. Removing the Google Play Store app:
http://i.cubeupload.com/aWDZ9H.gif
2. Disabling the Google Play Services app:
http://i.cubeupload.com/Y6XcAh.gif
3. Disabling the Google Services Framework app:
http://i.cubeupload.com/6h3Whb.gif
Surprisingly, Google Maps still works but the Google Youtube App fails, by
giving the clear message that Google Play needs to be "updated". Luckily,
saving a youtube link from Firefox to the deskop completely replaces that
pushbutton youtube app, so there's no loss in functionality.
More surprisingly, the *default* SMS app that came with the Samsung Galaxy
S3 (yellow and white envelope icon), failed to send messages. This was also
easily worked around simply by installing a different SMS app from F-Droid,
named QSSMS, which worked fine in back-and-forth test messages to the iOS
user who switched from Android Nexus 5 to iPhone 6 a few weeks ago.
I will test this further, but, it seems that everything else is working,
but that there is no Advertising ID nor Google Play account nor even Google
Play Services running on this unrooted Android phone.
Given that fact, what could Google possibly latch on to in order to invade
privacy?
Can the iOS users likewise wipe out the Apple advertising ID altogether?