Google has closed a secret location data service

Have you ever used your Android phone in a particular place where coverage is uneven? On the other hand, have you ever used your Android phone and thought to yourself: "Wow, the cover here is great!" There is a good chance that Google knows both of these situations.

In fact, according to a new report by ReutersGoogle actually used this information to help US mobile operators know where their coverage was good – and where they needed work. This program – known as Mobile Network Insights – was unknown until Reuters got information about it.

However, the program itself no longer works since Google stopped it in April of this year. Although the company has not said as much, it's a good bet that Google has disabled Mobile Network Insights to prevent the public to know it and not be dissatisfied with its existence.

To gather all the information about the network service, Google has compiled anonymous location and service data from Android phones across the United States. He obtained this information only from the users who gave permission to the company to do so (by agreeing to share the history and location of the sites and their use as well as the diagnoses with Google when first setting up your Android device) and have not collected any personal identification information about all users.

Despite the seemingly harmless service, which apparently only had the purpose of showing mobile operators, virtually everything Google does with user data is under surveillance for the moment. This year, when Google made the headlines for data collection, especially in the case of GDPR, it made sense for Google to shut down Mobile Network Insights before anyone discovered it and made it public.

according to Reutersmobile operators are unhappy with the removal of the service as it helped them plan for network upgrades.