Google bans location tracking tool that sold Android users’ data

New Delhi: Google has banned a location data app SafeGraph from its Play Store that allegedly sold Android smartphone users location data for Covid mapping and other purposes.

According to a report in Motherboard, SafeGraph whose whose investors include a former head of Saudi intelligence, was one of several companies that collected geolocation records through plug-ins in other Android apps.

“SafeGraph markets its data to government entities and a wide range of industries, but it also sells the data on the open market to essentially anyone,” the report said on Thursday.