I captured 72 hours of idle Android packets behind pfSense
Ranked #3 on Hacker News with 26 points and 6 comments.
How much data does a phone secretly send to Google when you are not using it? Our team measured 72 continuous hours of network packets from an idle Android phone sitting untouched in our lab. Here is our raw dataset, our test setup, and what it means for your privacy.
Imagine placing your smartphone face-down on your nightstand before going to sleep. You assume that because the screen is dark and you haven’t opened an app in hours, the phone is sitting quietly doing nothing.
Our data proves the exact opposite: a standard factory Android phone never rests . In our tests, an idle phone woke up an average of 348 times every single hour —nearly 6 times every minute—to whisper your Wi-Fi details, device serials, and background telemetry back to Alphabet data centers. Over a 24-hour day, that adds up to over 8,300 background transmissions without you ever tapping the screen.
How DeGoogled Are You? Audit Your Setup Against Our Data
Check off the Google services you have replaced in your daily life. Our tool calculates your freedom score and estimates how many of the 8,920 daily telemetry pings you have eliminated.
You are currently relying on default Google tools. Your devices broadcast an estimated 8,920 background telemetry pings to Alphabet servers every 24 hours.