Yes or no, Android phones keep tracking users even without permission

According to researchers at the Trinity College in Dublin, there is no way to opt-out of the data tracking from these system apps, unless users decide to root their devices as these apps are usually packaged into the read-only memory (ROM).

Owning an Android phone could mean that your data is being tracked even if you do not give permission to the device to do so. Researchers have found that some Android devices have system apps that come pre-installed with Android device or bloatware, that comes right out of the box, sends back user data to the OS’s developers and various third parties. These system apps could serve some functionality like the camera or messages app but would send data to their OS even if the user never opened them.