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Two problems with this assumption per the article: 1) the app previously worked fine without the location information 2) the app no longer works at all without

by blihp 8y ago

Two problems with this assumption per the article: 1) the app previously worked fine without the location information 2) the app no longer works at all without location information. The only legitimate use case for location I can think of would be to pull down cable/tv/radio channel/station listings. But this shouldn't be a requirement since the user could easily manually enter in the ones they want. My guess is that something like this might be used as the pretext for requiring location. However, if the app continues to require location to function longer term (i.e. that this wasn't just an oversight which gets corrected in a future update) then I would assume that the real use case is something that has nothing to do with helping the user.

icebraining 8y ago
The problem here is that they don't really want location, they just want a list of the surrounding Wifi networks, it just happens that such information is easily converted into a location, so Android requests that permission.
- tyingq 8y ago
  I don't think they even want a list. Sounds like they'd be happy with a single SSID. Perhaps passed to it the way a browser file dialog works, where the OS sees the list, the app only sees what was selected.
- blihp 8y ago
  Android doesn't request the permission, the app does (via the app manifest) While that is the stated reason, that really isn't a legitimate reason for a remote control app to require location as it might not even work in all network scenarios. (i.e. the device in question may not be using a wifi network the phone can see/use) Keep in mind that many things including trivial flashlight apps have a history of wanting location access. There's usually a pretext in the form of some questionable/marginal feature that's used as a justification for the permission. Often after some digging the real reason becomes apparent in the form of data collection or an included ad serving library. For example, I have a 'smart' thermostat which has an app that requests location access. I deny it and it still works. There's at least one feature they use to justify requesting it but I suspect that if there weren't other uses (having nothing to do with benefiting me) for location data that the feature requiring location data probably wouldn't even exist.
tyingq 8y ago
"the app previously worked fine without the location information" Maybe. Perhaps they fielded a lot of support requests related to getting Bluetooth and/or WiFi connectivity established before using the remote for the first time. So it worked fine for this user, but didn't work well for less technical customers.

by blihp 8y ago

icebraining 8y ago

The problem here is that they don't really want location, they just want a list of the surrounding Wifi networks, it just happens that such information is easily converted into a location, so Android requests that permission.

tyingq 8y ago
I don't think they even want a list. Sounds like they'd be happy with a single SSID. Perhaps passed to it the way a browser file dialog works, where the OS sees the list, the app only sees what was selected.
blihp 8y ago
Android doesn't request the permission, the app does (via the app manifest) While that is the stated reason, that really isn't a legitimate reason for a remote control app to require location as it might not even work in all network scenarios. (i.e. the device in question may not be using a wifi network the phone can see/use) Keep in mind that many things including trivial flashlight apps have a history of wanting location access. There's usually a pretext in the form of some questionable/marginal feature that's used as a justification for the permission. Often after some digging the real reason becomes apparent in the form of data collection or an included ad serving library. For example, I have a 'smart' thermostat which has an app that requests location access. I deny it and it still works. There's at least one feature they use to justify requesting it but I suspect that if there weren't other uses (having nothing to do with benefiting me) for location data that the feature requiring location data probably wouldn't even exist.

tyingq 8y ago

"the app previously worked fine without the location information" Maybe. Perhaps they fielded a lot of support requests related to getting Bluetooth and/or WiFi connectivity established before using the remote for the first time. So it worked fine for this user, but didn't work well for less technical customers.