I was reading this article and which states "you have the option to reroute location requests to the Play Services API back to the OS location API" [with graphene OS]. I didn't fully understand how to do this so I started browsing my settings and found the fused location app which had recently accessed my location. I scrolled through the logs and saw that my sensor data was accessed at the same time my location was. I was able to turn off the location permission for this app but not the sensors. In permission settings it states "Device requires this permission to operate."
This has piqued my curiosity because not only do I have an intense emotional response to perceived violations of privacy but I also don't understand why or how any computer would require gyro sensor permissions to function.
Ultimately I understand that my location can be tracked without a warrant via my cell carrier using triangulation but I am curious if anyone could shed some light on this for me.

  • de0u replied to this.

    Screamingvoid This has piqued my curiosity because not only do I have an intense emotional response to perceived violations of privacy but I also don't understand why or how any computer would require gyro sensor permissions to function.

    It is common on phones that rotating the device 90 degrees causes the active app to enter landscape mode.

    Also, when a picture is taken, the camera app tries to record that landscape pictures were taken in landscape mode.

    With some frequency somebody posts here asking why pictures are displayed with the wrong rotation, and often it's because somebody removed the sensor permission from all apps.

    So the requirement isn't for the device to "function", just for some apps to function in the expected fashion.

    Google pays to have gyroscopes installed in phones because these days people expect apps to have access to orientation and acceleration data.