From the discussion below, I realized a lot of people probably do not
understand the difference between how Apple and Google handle the
mothership tracking account on their respective iOS & Android devices.

Hence I decided to open a thread just to answer anyone's questions.

Rest assured, how each ecosystem handles the mothership logging is
TREMENDOUSLY DIFFERENT - and if you don't know those differences, you don't
know the first thing about the operating system.

Which is why it's important to know this if you don't want to be clueless.

For example:
a. Apple inserts a _unique tracking id_ into *all your apps*; Google can't.
b. Yet GV inserts a _unique tracking account_ on your phone; Apple can't.

There are probably a dozen major differences, where those are just two.
See below for an explanation of the Google Voice (GV) item listed above.

candycanearter07 <no@thanks.net> wrote

>> I use Google Voice (but only on the iPad - because on Android it creates a
>> Google Account on the phone without ever asking you if it could do that).
>
> How does it get your name and what email format does it create?

I'm not sure what you're asking, so I'll just explain how it works when I
explain that this is one thing Apple does right - which is that the mere
use of the Google Voice app on iOS does NOT create an account on the iPad.

That's why I use the iPad instead of Android as my Google Voice
speakerphone (as the mere use of Google Voice on Android does create an
account on Android).

I see how it might be confusing to someone who doesn't have the empirical
knowledge that I have - because I experiment to see how things really work.

Nobody at Apple or at Google is going to tell you how things really work.
Which is why you're confused.

And if you're confused, certainly everyone else is confused also.

To understand, we need to distinguish between two very different things:
a. An account on a Google or Apple server, versus
b. That same account associated (logged in) on an Android or Apple phone
They're different things altogether, even as they may be the same account.

The key difference is if you merely have a Google or Apple Account on the
Internet, nothing you do is associated with you as long as you don't log
into that Google or Apple account from the PC or tablet or smartphone.

But if your phone or PC is associated with that Google or Apple account,
then _everything_ you do is associated with that Google or Apple account.

That's the good and bad of both the iOS system & that of Android.
A. The bad thing about iOS is _everything_ is tracked (even your apps!)
B. That's because Apple forces you to log into your AppleID every day!

A. The bad thing about Android is _everything_ is tracked (except your
apps) when people log into their Google Account from their phone.
B. And most people do that - although I don't have an account on my phone.

> What happens if you delete the account manually?

Remember, there's this concept of a Google or Android account on the
Internet on a server somewhere in Mountain View or Cupertino perhaps.

And then there's a completely different concept of logging into that Google
or Apple account on your computing device (which we'll assume is a phone).

A. If you delete your Google or Apple Account on the Mountain View or
Cupertino servers, nothing happens (other than you lose associated
data such as cloud storage or email or backups or contacts or whatever).

B. If you delete your Google Account on your Android phone, nothing happens
since Android is designed to work just fine without that Google Account.

C. However, if you delete your Apple Account on your iOS device, everything
essentially stops working - at least almost everything from Apple dies
(which is most of what you like about an iOS device, by the way).

>> If you don't use it after a while (a few years as I recall), it will ask
>> you to log in and confirm you still want it. Otherwise it gets deleted.
>
> Well then, my voice account is long gone

Yup. I don't know if Apple automatically retires unused AppleID accounts,
but I do know that Google retires them unilaterally when they're unused.

On the other hand, if you don't log into your AppleID every day of the rest
of your life, Apple will _force_ you to log in manually - and if you don't
acquiesce to Apple's demands - everything you like about iOS will die.

Ask me how I know this...
<https://i.postimg.cc/LXzB3Lc0/appleid01.jpg> Apple _forces_ a log in!
<https://i.postimg.cc/8k3GQyj4/appleid09.jpg> Apple tracks your activity
<https://i.postimg.cc/hhFNJ5mq/appleid010.jpg> Apps become non functional
--
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