[Privacy] How do we turn off Google's (recent?) employment of cell-tower geolocation data in the Google Maps app?

The Pixel2 has the swipe-down thing. No data on/off, but there is a data-saver icon which turns off data downloading in the background -- which I just turned on.

Looking at the battery-usage history I see a number of apps using minuscule amounts of battery even though I had NOT used those apps. We'll see if this setting fixes that. Using MY battery to do unwanted stuff is definitely undesirable.

I just noticed that some apps have a yes/no background battery usage restriction toggle. YESSSSS!

It would be really nice if there were a BIG online manual for Androids. Having to discover stuff by wandering around randomly in the dark is less than desirable.

Not quite as what you described. Swipe down then Internet gives two toggles: mobile operator name and Wi-Fi. Press operator name and a box appears "Turn off mobile data?". The options are Turn off and Cancel.

On almost everyone's phone, there is a swipe-down icon for data on/off. That icon looks like a "two way traffic" sign (arrow down + arrow up).

If it's not there, it "could" have been removed by a user since you only get to put four, five or six icons in that top swipe-down panel.

As an example, the first image in this big online manual doesn't have it.

But there is a further swipe (or a settings gear icon) to change them.

I googled for "android manual quick settings icons explained" for you.

I don't think any of us ever took a class in how to use Android. So we learned it the same way that you are learning it right now.

Once you learn it, they change it with the next Android release!

Patrick snipped-for-privacy@oleary.com wrote

If you search the Android newsgroups for "Tutorial", you'll see that I have spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours trying to help people like you.

You'll see similar articles if you search XDA Developers for my tutorials.

They are some of the best-written most-detailed Android tutorials on the planet (if I do say so myself). :)

I write them because I'm one out of a million in that I truly care that people can do what I can do - so I try to teach them (and learn from them).

I'm nothing like your average poster to Usenet... I'm not here for amusement but to learn from others and to teach them what I can do.

And I learn from others, like Andy Burns, who know more than I ever will.

BTW, I'm working on a tutorial as we speak where these are my one-tap shortcuts to turn all the Google invasive privacy features on/off.

Note you must turn most of them on to use Google Maps - but you can immediately turn them off when you're done with using Google Maps.

And please do note that you can _easily_ get online real-time traffic without ever turning ANY of those location-related radios on!!!!! *Most people don't know that tidbit!!!!!*

See my tutorial on how to get real-time online traffic without giving away your privacy - as routing needs your location - but traffic never does!

Thanks! Hopefully Bev's Pixel (2?) has a similar panel/setting.

Settings / Network & internet / Mobile network [only when 'on'] / Mobile data off/on and Roaming off/on

Since I leave the 'phone' off unless *I* want to make (or am expecting) a call or actually need to use non-wifi data, I'm leaving both settings ON.

The Real Bev snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

I just noticed I didn't have a 1-tap homescreen shortcut to roaming. So I made one and put that one-tap shortcut into my shortcuts folder.

The problem isn't you leaving it on - it's Google's Android turning it off.

Hence you need to have a set of shortcuts to keep Google's location honest.

I think you missed the last part of what I wrote. :)

c/p

(emphasis added)

So that's how I disable mobile data, which I admit is an extremely infrequent thing, but on closer examination I see now that my Samsung Galaxy S20 does, indeed, have a Mobile Data switch. I'll probably never use it since I'm used to using the Airplane Mode method.

Yes.

Yes, and that's where I finally found a Mobile Data switch, but I'll never use it because Airplane Mode and WiFi are more important to me, and they do the same job as the Mobile Data switch.

Char Jackson snipped-for-privacy@none.invalid wrote

There are so many ways to efficiently access that mobile data on/off switch, that it will end up being different based on personal preference.

For example, you can put into your shortcuts folder on your dock a one-tap icon to open up the mobile-data activity in your Android settings menu.

But I simply swipe down, just like Frank Slootweg says he does too. For efficiency, my Android 13 quick-settings tiles are set to:

1. Wireless debugging (can only be added from Developer options!)
2. Airplane mode
3. Location on/off
4. Data on/off
5. Wi-Fi on/off
6. Sound on/off

Since I have a cheap prepaid phone/data SIM I want to use it as little as possible. Why would I worry about google turning anything off?

Although Firefox (linux, not android) does close tabs of its own volition now and again. So does chrome. Android seems to turn 'location' off every once in a while, but if I need to have it on I'll notice that.

The Real Bev snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

The problem is you can set up your phone perfectly, however you wish. As I do...

And then, after using just one or two of those secretly nefariously not-so-well-behaved apps, it's no longer set up the way you had it set up.

For example... ... If you use _any_ Google apps, you'll find most are poorly behaved.

They turn things back on that you had expressly turned off for example.

If that's fine by you - then there shouldn't be any worries on your part. But it's not fine by me that Google apps secretly change privacy settings.

Always in favor of less privacy... toward more data collection... ... so I turn them off ...

Which is where the easy-to-use efficient one-tap shortcuts come in handy.

No, I didn't, but you missed what *I* wrote! :-)

Yes, I understand that. But *my* point is that when you do that, you

Thanks for the confirmation. Being a Samsung, I thought it likely that it would have the Quick panel.

No they don't (see above), but for you the difference (no calls/SMS) apparently does not matter.

Anyway, the beauty of the (Samsung's) Quick panel is that you can put the buttons on the initial/main panel which are important to you and leave the rest on the extended panel / extra pages, or hide them alltogether.

You're right, but calls and SMS are only off for a second or two, right? As quickly as you can hit the WiFi switch, they're back on again. For me, that hasn't been a big deal.

Ah, I see our confusion! What's back on is *WiFi* calling/SMS (if your provider and phone supports that). I meant normal 'cellular' calling/SMS. Cellular calling/SMS is off, because Airplane mode turns off *all* radios and the only way to turn the 'cellular' radio back on, is to switch off Airplane mode.

Does this explain our misunderstanding?

Not everything changes, right? Hopefully?

In each version of Android they add more quick settings tiles that can only be added via the Developer options settings page such as in Android 13 Settings --> Developer options --> Quick settings developer tiles Show layout bounds Profile HWUI rendering Force RGL layout direction Window animation scale Winscope trace Sensors off Wireless debugging Show taps Volume Up Press & Power Double Press Bugreport

The only two that I added are the "Sensors off" and "Wireless debugging" quick settings tiles, where I mostly use the "Wireless debugging" switch since it's required for adb to talk to Android using the LAN's Wi-Fi AP.

Good to know.

The "Airplane mode" quick settings tile turns off all the radios. The "Sensors off" quick settings tile turns off all the sensors.

Yes! :)

I thought that most do, but perhaps it's less than I thought.

But doesn't that use Mobile Data where you are? If you turn off Mobile Data, isn't WiFi your only remaining option for calls/SMS? Where I am, we don't use circuit switched cellular connections anymore. Instead, it's all packet switched for quite a few years now, so calls, SMS, and other data are all just data. At least, that's my understanding.

Agreed.

Yes, and my apologies for dragging it out. My little neck of the woods may not be representative of the entire world.

That's not quite the full story.

On a "stock" version of Android (such a google Pixel) the first time you turn on airplane mode, it does indeed turn off all radios.

However, if you manually turn back on bluetooth and wifi radios, the phone remembers this, and subsequently when you turn on airplane mode it only turns off the cellular radio (and pops up reminder that this is the case).