I was checking some of the permissions that apps have on my Android phone, and I discovered that many of them have three options in the “Location permission” section:[ul]
[li]Allow all the time[/li][li]Allow only while using the app[/li][li]Deny[/li][/ul]I’m trying to understand what legitimate reason there might be for “Allow all the time.” I do understand that apps are running in the background even when I’m not using them myself, and that this is necessary because how else could they notify me about something that I’m waiting to find out about. But why would they care about my location? If there’s a reason to send me a notification, why would it matter where I am located?
The only purposes I can imagine are ones that I would consider to be an invasion of my privacy. For example, if I gave that permission to my 7-Eleven app, it would probably know when I entered the store, and send me some messages about a great deal. Okay, I dislike that, but at least I understand why some people would find it useful. But why would Hulu or Facebook or Google want to know my location when I’m not even using the app?
Google Maps can show a history of where you’ve been. It can’t do this if it doesn’t have your location when you aren’t using it. Some apps send notifications based on location (“remind me to call Mum when I get home”). Many apps, although aren’t being “used”, are still working for you in the background and can’t do this without location data. Looking at my list of apps though, there are very few that I have set to “always” and those are all either mapping apps of some sort or apps that can send notifications based on location.
“Allow only while using the app” is a newer option just added to Android within the last year or two. Before that, you could only allow/deny location altogether.
But yeah, generally only very few apps need location all the time. If you can’t think of a good reason for it to need it all the time (and it doesn’t tell you), it’s pretty safe to assume it’s spyware. Could be relatively innocuous, like it just wanting to know where you are to show you local ads.
IIRC, some permissions were bundled for earlier versions of android. Granted, that was 4 or 5 years ago and they certainly should have updated them since then, but (and I don’t know how they were bundled, this is just an example), if an app needed access to the light on your phone (the flash), it had to be granted permission to ‘camera and pictures’, if if needed access to the microphone, it had to request access to ‘phone and contacts’, or something like that.
What always bugged me, and what would make me not even install an app and find a new one is when they needed something irrelevant*. Like, why does an alarm clock need access to my location or a flashlight requesting access to my contact list.
*irrelevant in the sense that it certainly wouldn’t be needed to function, but ‘relevant’ in the sense that it needed access to those things so it could target me with spam or phish for phone numbers/email addresses.
Thanks, Joey P. The bundling is something I wasn’t aware of, and the flashlight is a very plausible example. And, like you, there have been many apps that I decided not to install because of this stuff. Which is exactly why I opened this thread!
“Google” isn’t any one thing; it’s a whole host of them, some of which fit together in various subtle ways.
For instance, suppose I have an event on my calendar app (which is a Google calendar, because that’s the default calendar app on an Android phone), and I entered a location for it. My phone will give me a reminder right before the event, and it’ll give me that reminder with enough lead time to allow for travel time. To do that, it has to know where I am at the time it’s giving the reminder. And it also has to know that I usually get around by bicycle, because it gives me the reminder at a time corresponding to the bicycle travel time, not the car travel time. And how, for that matter, does it know that I usually get around by bike? I’m not actually sure. It might be because, when asking Google Maps for directions, I often ask for them by bicycle, or it might be because my phone has noticed that I often move about at bicycle speed. Or a combination of both.
Now, sure, a flashlight app that needs access to your location, or a… well, almost anything that needs your contact list, those are just trying to spam. I don’t install apps like that.
I had a Samsung Galaxy at one time and had it with me when we went to see a band on Pittsburgh’s South Side (The Rex Theater). We parked on a residential side street, walked to a bar, then to another bar, then to the Rex. We had a great time.
After the show we began walking to the car, going up and down side streets and getting more and more lost. Then my phone chimed and asked, “Do you need help finding where you parked?” I actually answered out loud. It was wonderful. That’s why allowing Google Maps access to your location at all times is a good idea.
Having a map/direction-finding app know my location is good. Other apps will mostly be denied permission.
Aside: my Google Pixel keeps firing up the “assistant” function (which I never use) when I inadvertently squeeze the sides of the phone while plugging it in for battery recharging. It begs me to ask it some inane question. Last night I got fed up and said “Fuck off.” Its response was to apologize and ask if I wanted to report a malfunction.
Well, you might want location services on at all times for the contract tracing function recently added by both Google and Apple.
And here and here (NYT paywall warning) are a couple of opinion pieces about how people are tracked. Such data can be used for various purposes (like an analysis of how much people are sticking to stay-at-home restrictions in various areas) or for marketing research.
And even if you turn off location services, you can still be tracked other ways, like via Bluetooth.
Sounds like a programming quirk to me, since the choice selection is actually coming from the phone not the app itself. The app is able to access the phone software with a command to “show location settings” at which time your phone then…shows all location settings, which includes the three options. The app does not have the ability to granularly choose which settings are shown (there’s no flag for “don’t show the ‘all the time’ option”), it can only trigger the prompt. The phone software then sets your choice and closes.
As you noted, there are some instances where one might want to approve the “all the time” action, so that’s why it’s an option in the first place.
I would suspect that many lower-level apps would not collect location data 24/7 anyway, even if you did allow it. It has to be stored and parsed, either on their servers (they would need the room) or in your phone (in which case you’d eventually dump the app for excessive size). That’s not to say that there aren’t nefarious actors who would totally collect it and then sell it, or super sophisticated actors who would use it for their own purposes, or to say that I ever let apps use “all the time.” But don’t assume that if you give a little trail mapping app your location, and for some reason choose “all the time”, that you’re going to be stalked by satellite while sleeping.
Anyway, it’s just a programming quirk of the apps calling on the OS.
Apple phones have all three options too fwiw. I don’t know how long they’ve had it.
Hmm… so if I get an update that does -not- give me the choice to say “no”, I can afterwards go and deprive the app from those permissions from my control panel/settings/whatever?
Then again if the actual EAS is activated it will flash to compatible phones within range – e.g. when I was in FL with my PR-number smartphone, it still gave me the right tornado warnings for where I was.
Some see it as creepy. Others might see it as a clever application of artificial intelligence. The software notes movement that appears random and guesses that the user is lost.
See, I like it! My current phone is an Apple product, but I still love Google Maps for their GPS. The app often guesses correctly (based on my prior use) where I want to go.
Yeah, the EAS can override that permission.
I’m thinking of the alerts that don’t rise to emergency status, like a hail storm is approaching, high wind advisory, or it’s going to start raining in 30 minutes.
I was under the impression that this has nothing to do with your settings, and actually would happen even if there’s no map software - or even a GPS receiver - in your phone at all, because it is sent out from the cell tower to all compatible phones nearby.
I think I’ve told this story before… A couple of years ago I had to take my 10 year old granddaughter with me to an audiologist appointment about 40 miles away. When we left the appointment, my granddaughter wanted to stop and get a pop on the way home. So I texted my wife to tell her we were on our way and were going to stop for a drink. Google helpfully popped up a search screen for “bars near your location.”
Location-based alarms can wake you up if you fall asleep on the bus, or at least remind you that your stop is coming up while you’re completely engrossed in Candy Crush. Some clock apps also give a weather update, and they need your location for that. Some sort of location data is needed to know if you cross time zones, but I assume such apps use the system clock rather than keeping their own time. For flashlight apps, yeah that’s just spyware data harvesting nonsense.
I turned off emergency alerts on my phone because I don’t care that the river five miles aways has reached flood stage at 3:30 in the morning, and the tornado siren is just two blocks away so I can hear it just fine. Weather apps let you customize what sort of alerts you get, and those need to know your location at all times in order to work properly.
