I suppose it's this week's flavor of moral/techno panic so I won't dismiss this question as stupid. Android is opensource so they can use and modify it as they

I suppose it's this week's flavor of moral/techno panic so I won't dismiss this question as stupid. Android is opensource so they can use and modify it as they please, as for sending location data, it's the maps app that sends triangulation data when used to refine it's location capabilities, it's covered in the TOS and the data is anonymous. And since people evidentially don't like wardriving this method is a more efficient and less costly alternative and the benefit to the user is obvious.