A majority of Android smartphones collect location data and send it back to Google, even when location services are switched off.
News website named Quartz reported Android phones gathered information about nearby mobile phone masts and shared those details with Google.
Google told Quartz the information was never stored and it said Android would be updated to stop the practice.
The issue affected Android phones with Google Play Services running in the background. Google Play Services are required to access many of the search giant's apps and the framework is pre-installed on a majority of Android smartphones targeted at consumers.
The data could be used to work out a person's position.
The phones did so even when location services were switched off in the settings menu and even when there was no Sim card in the phone.
There was no option to disable the practice.
