Carrier not hidden from Google?

leafnose

Hi,

I just saw on my Google Play account that besides the Pixel model shown, which is normal, the name of my carrier is also shown.

Just to be sure: Is it to be expected?
How does that work?
Model: Non-carrier Pixel 8

Thanks.

leafnose

Someone answered me on Matrix that all apps can get carrier information.

Has anyone more information on this? Could anyone point me to a document stating this?

Thanks.

de0u

leafnose Someone answered me on Matrix that all apps can get carrier information.

Has anyone more information on this? Could anyone point me to a document stating this?

The FAQ question about non-hardware identifiers explicitly says "network country code", but I would not at all be surprised if "network identification" (carrier code, network code, carrier name) were true as well. Probably a good place to look would be the Android developer docs.

leafnose

de0u
Thanks for the answer.

I’ve already tried to find something, but I guess I’m not really well versed when it comes to find something on developer.android.com.

I guess I would be more at ease if others using Google Play could confirm that they also have the carrier name displayed, even though they’ve never been connected to Google services without a VPN.

de0u

leafnose I really hope those strings are not available to all apps; it would mean any kind of apps could determine one’s country. (Or is it already the case?)

Again, the GrapheneOS FAQ explicitly says that the cellular carrier country is available (de0u). The FAQ does not provide a detailed list, but my hunch would be there are multiple properties in the same situation.

leafnose Besides, Telephony includes the content of all SMS and MMS, as far as I understand.

I think access to the SMS and MMS databases is controlled by an explicit permission.

de0u

leafnose I’ve already tried to find something, but I guess I’m not really well versed when it comes to find something on developer.android.com.

Here is something: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/Telephony#summary

The documentation for some packages starts off by describing why the information is sensitive and which permissions must be requested to access the information. But I didn't see anything like that offhand for Telephony. So maybe all apps can access that information?

leafnose

de0u
Thank you.

It seems to be coming from those strings under Telephony.CarrierId and Telephony.Carriers.

I really hope those strings are not available to all apps; it would mean any kind of apps could determine one’s country. (Or is it already the case?)
Besides, Telephony includes the content of all SMS and MMS, as far as I understand. Wouldn’t it be attached to the Phone and SMS permissions instead?

Now, I have to know if I made a mistake with a permission once, or if it’s normal…

leafnose

de0u
Oops, I keep forgetting this country code thing it seems. (I promise I read your answers, lol.) So network country code is bound to the SIM card (or the current GSM network)?

Nevertheless, the carrier name is a more fine-grained data than the country code. I’m surprised not to find traces of a previous discussion on the subject on this forum or elsewhere.

For sure, I’m not the first one to almost freak out (probably due to ignorance) to see my carrier name shown on my pseudonymous Google Play account. Which makes me wonder what sort of other data on the same level of fine-grainess have been obtained.

We’re plenty with a pseudonymous G account; anyone to confirm they also see the carrier name in their account?