"Would you like to share you location with this site?" holy shit that's malicious.
On an article about surveillance, no less
On an article about surveillance, no less
That's a feature, not a bug. JS is super useful, but only when used correctly. It's rarely used correctly anymore.
If it's necessary to determine a location for the purposes of a query (e.g., "where is a pizza restaurant (and personal information feed front-end to personal data tracking, FWIW) near <address> or <postal code>?"), then allow the user to state where they're interested in this.
I've got precisely the same gripes against Google (Maps, etc., Android), Apple, and any given mobile phone provider.
Which is precisely what is happening here.
We do not let computers decide whether the purpose is nefarious or good.
If I'm actively engaging in something, and there's the option to specify (note: not be interrupted by a pop-up) for location, manually input, that's within the realm of acceptability.
Though it's distantly possible I might have no idea of my location within, say, a 1km resolution at a point in time, that is an exceptionally distant and rare likelihood for me. And I've no interest in leaving a set of high-time-resolution location tracking datapoints across a slew of data repositories and "information partners".
Congratulations on not getting out much? Please remember you're not everybody. For a lot of people, websites being able to ask for a location is a useful feature.
Keyword: ask. They're not just getting it, they're asking. If you don't want to "leave a set of high-time-resolution location tracking datapoints across a slew of data repositories", you can click no, just as I do almost all the time, except when it's useful.
Because it's useful.
As for my generally excellent sense of geographic location, I make no apologies.