Do you turn off "location access" in all the apps that don't need it?

Can you *really* bring yourself to trust an app whose developer contrasts "fine" with "course" (and not the more appropriate "coarse")? What other more dangerous typos may have found their way into the app's code?

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp
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I actually find the Google Maps app to be quite useful. I don't blindly follow it of course but it's great for comparing routes. Also for warning about upcoming road changes. And when I miss a turn it recomputes and still gets me there. Also, telling me which lane to get in for an upcoming freeway change is helpful. On a recent trip to Disneyland I took a shorter route than Google suggested. Turns out one of that route's roads was closed and Google knew it and that's why her route was longer. I should've listened to her. Cost me an extra hour.

Mine too. She always tries to bring visitors in one of our back gates that won't open for them. That's when I get a call.

Yep. More than one tourist here has tried to take his big car cross country on a tiny dirt road because she said to. Then they get stuck in the mountains with no cell service. Occasionally in our brutal summers that turns out to be a fatal mistake.

Reply to
AL

Horace Algiers schrieb am 2016-09-23 um 18:45:

Maybe because it includes weather info as well and needs to know for which region the weather data should be displayed.

Because this app also records the location to build WiFi "heatmaps" if your region:

Ask T-Mobile - probably to enable/disable services which are only available in certain regions.

To initiate a navigation from your current location to the address of the contact.

No.

See above. And I don't care. If I don't trust an app I would rather not use it at all instead of just disabling requested access rights.

Reply to
Arno Welzel

No, it was an spelling error by Horace, not by the application.

Reply to
Carlos E.R.

The accounts is probably because it wants you to register to use it and save your routes. Some of these apps may offer to share a track with someone.

The access to the SD card may be to save the track or to save photos you do.

LOL :-)

Reply to
Carlos E.R.

That's very unfortunate. These apps do not take into account the quality of the roads and the size/weight of the vehicle. You can learn of the accidents they cause in the TV some times.

This summer a big lorry got stuck like a cork in a narrow street in a

part. The lorry had been looking for a gas station that in fact was out of service for years, near the highway but not that near. Chap lost a day and expenses.

Reply to
Carlos E.R.

It's still confusing, but I think that's because the app I was using only said "fine" and "coarse" location, but didn't explain the difference:

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I installed the apps which Jeff had suggested, which gave more information:

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Each of the apps suggested by Jeff listed apps by location access type, although each app uses different words to convey the two types, for example, "precise" versus "approximate":

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Namely: Precise:

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Approximate:
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One of the apps Jeff suggested has a paragraph explanation.

App Permission Watcher by Eric Struse

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Here is what it says (verbatim) for "precise location":

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*precise location (GPS and network-based)* "Allows apps to access your approximate location using *GPS or* location services based on network sources, such as mobile phone towers and Wi-Fi APs. When these location services are available and enabled, this permission allows apps to determine your approximate location. *This may consume more battery power.*"

Here is what it says (verbatim) for "approximate location":

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"approximate location (network-based)" "Allows apps to access your approximate location using GPS or location services based on network sources, such as mobile phone towers and Wi-Fi APs. When these location services are available and enabled, this permission allows apps to determine your approximate location. This may consume more battery power."

We can presume "precise" means "fine" and that "approximate" means "coarse".

So, the only difference between those two descriptions is: a. precise/fine location = GPS, towers, APs (where GPS consumes battery) b. approximate/coarse location = towers, APs

Reply to
Horace Algiers

I have been using GPS since we put the DeLorme "buttons" on our dashboards and plugged the wires into our laptop RS232 ports and powered the laptops with inverters plugged into our cigarette lighter sockets.

I've always thought that following map instructions is like "following a leader".

a. If you don't know more than the leader does, then follow the leader.

b. But, if you do know more than the leader does, then lead the way yourself.

Reply to
Horace Algiers

Worse, Jeff, is that there are roads by my house, which is near your house, that I have *personally* requested Google mark as "restricted use".

I really wanted them to mark the paths and roads as "blocked" but Google doesn't seem to have that designation.

They only have restricted use.

Interestingly, you *never* can *talk* to a Google person by phone. You just get the runaround for an hour at their hq even. So what you get is a local

*volunteer* who has distinguished himself by a certain number of posts to the Google Mapping Forum (as far as I can tell).

This distinguished local volunteer is actually reasonable, and he/she listens to your public arguments, and he/she makes a call on what to designate the road and he/she then submits that decision to a higher-level group (presumably of google employees).

Only then do you get a notification of the final action, which, in some cases they agreed and in others (such as marking the road blocked), they disagreed. Each time they gave a rationale, which I consider reasonable (although inaccurate - since the road "is" blocked).

Their rationale is that a locked gate isn't a blockage - it's a "restriction". Their point is that someone who has the gate code or key can get past the blockage, so, it's merely a restriction.

In the end, my point is that simply *looking* at an *accurate* map will sometimes tell you better how to get somewhere than Google directions. In this case that I had the Google database corrected, if you route to a house on one of the "restricted use" roads, Google will take you to that house (because they don't "block" the road).

However, if you route from a point "just outside" the restricted-use roads, Google will take you roundabout over 30 additional miles since it won't route using the "restricted use" road unless the destination is "on" the restricted use roads.

Interesting ...

Reply to
Horace Algiers

Ah. Thanks for confirming that an "app ops" app would still be needed in Android 5, but not in Android 6.

That makes complete sense to me.

I don't "log in" to any map app, so, they only can get where I am when I turn on their access to GPS (which I usually leave on).

I feel GPS is *accurate enough* for me when I am mapping, so, I have zero need for "SSID location" or "cell tower location" which Android seems to call "coarse" or "approximate" location.

Given that I am never always logged into any account (not even Google Play!), is there any other app, other than a map app, that *needs* location access?

NOTE: I realize apps like "waze" and "weather" and "gas buddy" can use location to your advantage *when you need that* - but does any app *need* a

*constant* 24/7 location access to work for you?

I agree that most people might get annoyed when an app *asks* for location permission - but don't the iOS users live with that exact fact?

Besides, how many apps actually *need* full-time 24/7 location access?

Reply to
Horace Algiers

I would rather plead nolo contendere to the charges, but, in light of the facts, my plea is mea culpa.

Reply to
Horace Algiers

No, my Nexus 5X will warn me when an app tries to access it. I can then choose to either allow or admit. Lots of apps demand lots of permissions (even when they don't need them), but they don't always use those permissions.

Reply to
s|b

A Chrysler I had years ago kept the maps on an optical drive under the drivers seat. It was a proprietary disk of course. Chrysler wanted $125 for an updated disk. I declined.

Reply to
AL

Yeah, I think I paid something like 300 bucks for "mapsource" (or something like that) maps for my streetpilot III "RAM sticks" from garmin and about $1000 for a Garmin nuvi 770 that had Europe maps.

Geezus. Who would have known a *free* map would be better than a $1000 pay map!

Reply to
Horace Algiers

??? How would any mapping program every use "maps that don't exist"?

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

... except, of course, for when it tells you wrong :-{ !

Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

A not uncommon occurrence :-(

Reply to
The Real Bev

No, roads that do not exist, painted on the maps.

Reply to
Carlos E.R.

Made even more unpalatable by the occasions on which it urges you, several times over, to keep left, say, then tells you to take the next exit, on the right. Only thing more annoying is the CT Interstate road-repair warnings, typically "Caution! Left two lanes closed ahead," followed by lane closures of the right lane or two instead. Cheers, -- tlvp (sorry, gone way OT)

Reply to
tlvp

Oh, sorry. Dangling modifiers like that always confuse the heck out of me. Thanks for reinterpreting for me. Cheers, -- tlvp

Reply to
tlvp

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