Reply to post: Re: Also consider Bluetooth

Euro consumer groups: We think Android tracking is illegal

JohnFen

Re: Also consider Bluetooth

" It serves as a warning from Google that this app is using something that may be able to track you and you have to agree to that."

Yes, that's the intention. But because the Android permissions system is so utterly awful, that's not the effect. The actual effect is that users are encouraged to ignore the permissions request and just allow everything.

The problem with the Bluetooth-related locations permission is that it's too coarse, as using the permission in that way means that the permission will be asked for with the majority of apps, whether they engage in location tracking or not. That's training people to just click "accept" without thinking.

A better way to do it is to make the location permission required for apps that actually use location services (which is what users assume it means, even though it doesn't), and have a different mechanism to warn users about possible loopholes. For using Bluetooth, for example, rather than asking for location permission (which is a misleading thing to do), it would be better to just put up a warning that apps that can access Bluetooth could leverage that access to determine your location.

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