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jiqiren

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

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

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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

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.

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

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