It has been like this since the dawn of time, but it wasn’t until we had one more pandemic and the arrival of Google’s contact tracing API in general and COVID Radar in particular that we had learned that permission to track bluetooth nearby It came uniformly with access to the locationwhether we want it or not.
It wasn’t a bug, but characteristicWell, it’s possible to get a good idea of where you are from nearby bluetooth devices, but Google managed to decouple these permissions in Android 12, with a new permission to scan bluetooth devices without requiring the location. Search for Wi-Fi networks without needing location permission
Wi-Fi networks yes, location no
Traditionally an app that searches for nearby Bluetooth devices or Wi-Fi networks need locate authorizationWell, that’s how Google designed it. The logic behind this is that from the analysis of nearby devices it is possible for said app to get a rough idea of the current location even if the rough location or GPS is not in use. .
This led to some misunderstandings with apps like COVID Radar, which required location permission to do their job of tracking nearby devices and exchanging credentials. The app needs to access the location, even if it was not obtained from Android. In Android 12, Google added new permissions to track nearby Bluetooth devices no need to ask for location permission.
A member of the Nearby Share team shared on Reddit (via Mishaal Rahman), What the same could apply to permission to scan for Wi-Fi networks in the future, maybe on Android T or Android 13. After decoupling the location of the Bluetooth tracking permission, the next step would be to do the same with the Wi-Fi connections.
We agree. There are strong privacy reasons why the location needs to be turned on to perform Bluetooth / WiFi scans (apps get a snapshot of all devices around you which can be used to get your exact location), but we’ve got it working. with bluetooth and wifi teams to do their best to decouple it. Ahora podemos hacer escaneos de Bluetooth sin ubicación en Android 12 (aparte de algunos formatos BLE conocidos que incluyen datos directamente relevantes para la ubicación), y esperamos hacer lo mismo para WiFi en Android T. Si tenemos éxito, entonces podremos eliminitar el required de habilación the location.
This would allow apps that need to scan nearby Wi-Fi networks for some reason to do their job without exposing the user’s location, provided they adapt to use these new permissions. Google worker’s response on reddit refers to a complaint from a user of why location permission is required to transfer data with Nearby Share.
At the moment, nothing is confirmed, except that Google is actively trying to decouple these two permissions. If they’re successful, we’ll have a bit more privacy as standard in Android 13, which never hurts.
