Search giant insists it s necessary, iTitan didn t have anything to say Share Copy Android and iOS phones transmit telemetry back to Google and Apple, even when users have chosen not to send analytics data. In a recent released research paper, titled Mobile Handset Privacy: Measuring The Data iOS and Android Send to Apple And Google [PDF], Douglas Leith, chairman of computer systems in the school of computer science and statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, documents how iPhones and Android devices phone home regardless of the wishes of their owners. According to Leith, Android and iOS handsets share data about their salient characteristics with their makers every 4.5 minutes on average.