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Comment by BluSyn | Hacker News Reader

This brings up an issue I wish iOS and Android would solve. Location data is always very specific, as accurate as GPS or Cellular triangulation can offer (down to the centimeter in some cases). However the vast majority of use-cases don't need this level of precision. Maybe Maps for accurate directions require this, but rarely anything else. In this case the OS simply needs to know what country you are in, not what street corner you are on.

Why can't apps request less precise location data, and maybe let the user choose this? Another common example is Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and even dating apps, don't need to know your location with precision, they usually just want the city or zip code with relative accuracy. My Weather app doesn't need to know what rock I'm standing next to for accurate forecasting.

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iOS apps definitely do have this granular option. It's been around since iOS 2 SDK.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/clloc...

I wish we could do this on web, and see what location data we were going to send if we granted the permission.

Yeah I have wanted this option since the beginning. Precise location, no, but want to provide just my zip code or city or state? Maybe I'll actually say yes.

Very interesting. But when an app requests location permissions, it's still the same message right?

There's no way of knowing whether the app will be using your exact location, or just the city you're in?

Correct. Room for improvement would be giving users the option to see this and select/approve it.

I'd also want the option to choose any location as the location my phone sends to that app. I'd give each app a different city near me (when precision isn't that important) just to add more noise to my precise location.

As someone who jealously guards their personal data, I agree with you.

As a product manager/designer, I think that would end in disaster for any consumer-facing company that implemented it. The number of people who would enter random places, forget they did so, and then complain that their phone is broken or the app doesn't work would be staggering.

Android has supported this for ages, just not customized per app. they put it under dev options, i guesd to mitigate the demented user problem.

Windows 10 makes this distinction. It's a logical one, for sure.

Correct, and you can't restrict permissions either. If an app requests precise location, you should have the option to say "no thanks, you're getting the center of my postal code instead".

I'd really appreciate more options like this - allowing you to spoof details.

At present, even though you have to approve permissions, I take it it's sufficiently rare for people to refuse them that app developers don't feel the need to rein themselves in, just based on the number of permissions still requested for very basic apps.

Allowing granular refusal was a step in the right direction, but plenty of apps still refuse to work unless granted permissions they don't need. Spoofing would be much better.

In the Netherlands your postal code is enough to narrow you down to a specific street. Not everything works like it does in the US.

That's missing the point. It can be a postal code, or a random point within a 10 mile radius, or something else.

It's not how it always works in the US either -- in Manhattan, certain postal codes can narrow you down to a single building ;)

Does Apple enforce this when app is submitted to the App store for review? For example, weather app doesn't need the precise location

In that case it should inform the user about the accuracy of the location request.

This has been possible on Android since launch. https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.per...

I don't think Apple are requesting a lot of information as this article suggests right? It's just clearing the air as to why it needs to check for location when all manual toggles are switched off.

Even if it only asked for the country, the location icon would still appear.

How do you know that applications are requesting for more location data that others, just curious?

The apps can request less precise location data.

up to three km https://developer.apple.com/documentation/corelocation/clloc...

But if you're spying on the users of your app why would you limit the value of the data you're collecting? It'd be better to put that in the control of the user being exploited and not the app doing the spying

Applications that don’t need accurate location benefit by getting faster results and less battery drain (if the system last got a location 5 minutes ago it’s safe to say you are in the same city, so you can just get a cached result). It’s not really there for privacy, since even the city you are in is a lot of data to go on privacy-wise.

Sadly, I don’t think most applications care much about limiting battery drain…

Is the location randomised? Over lots of data points, your precise location could still be pinpointed, I'd imagine.

> My Weather app doesn't need to know what rock I'm standing next to for accurate forecasting.

Zip code is plenty, but they all seem to think they need gps.

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