By Zainab Shafiq 
Recently, it has been suspected that Pixel 9 Pro XL shares your personal data and information to Google even without having you install it, thanks to the discovery made by Cybernews. According to its report, every 15 minutes, all the data-including those sensitive ones regarding location, email address, phone number, and even to some extent your applications will be transferred from this phone to Google before you can even set it up.
However, the developers for the privacy-focused Android variant GrapheneOS made clear this isn’t special only to Pixel 9 Pro XL. They said this was normal Android behaviour in all devices that utilize Google Play integration. They also noted how Pixel 9 Pro XL does share your private data with Google just like iOS does with similar data collections.
On privacy concerns, Google said securing and protecting user privacy is key for Pixel devices. According to Google, when such data is shared, that is meant to deliver various services, the likes of which can be software updates or personalized features, they added. They also added that users can manage data sharing, permissions, and privacy settings through setup and device settings.
The company also notes it has been working to make privacy better on Android. For example, Google has relocated location history to Your Timeline from cloud storage to the device itself. Users can thus either choose to save the data of their location on the device or enable an auto-delete option to delete after 3 or 18 months.
Despite all these increased concerns, experts always encourage user to manage their settings properly so that the risk of such incidences is reduced to the lowest level.
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