Why Network location?

soupslurpr

yellow-leaves You misunderstood the docs. It means that in Android 12, a new permission was added for Wi-Fi scanning so you don't need to have the precise location permission for it. The precise location permission still gives access to Wi-Fi scanning, but only if Wi-Fi is enabled if "Wi-Fi scanning" (which means always-on Wi-Fi scanning) in Settings is disabled.

yellow-leaves

soupslurpr You misunderstood the docs. It means that in Android 12, a new permission was added for Wi-Fi scanning so you don't need to have the precise location permission for it. The precise location permission still gives access to Wi-Fi scanning, but only if Wi-Fi is enabled if "Wi-Fi scanning" (which means always-on Wi-Fi scanning) in Settings is disabled.

Okay , so what if one grants an app the "access precise location only in the foreground" for example then that would automatically grant the app access to both WiFi and Bluetooth assuming that WiFi scanning is disabled (GOS location implementation settings)
Would the Global WiFi permission also need to be enabled as well for for an app to access WiFi (fido2 mentioned this)
What about apps gaining access to Bluetooth, does it require the granting of the equivalent Bluetooth permissions etc.?

If WiFi scanning is turned on (Inside GOS location implementation settings) would that imply that apps granted "access precise location only in the foreground" would be able to activate WiFi at will too?
In addition, would the same apply to Bluetooth?

soupslurpr

DeletedUser370 Yes, it's planned but it's a bit difficult to implement an automatic option in a privacy-respecting way when the databases are so large in size. It needs to be done in a way that doesn't accidentally end up storing a location history on the device. For example, if it automatically downloaded areas based on your location, it would essentially be an on-device location history. For this reason, it's likely we'll only expose a manual option to download a specific region instead of automatic. It can still automatically update it once you select the area to download. Ideally, you'd be able to download the full database, but the Wi-Fi one will just be too big to do that. For cell towers most probably can since it'll most likely be around 500 MB for the full database. For Wi-Fi, I expect the database size will be a whole lot larger, potentially 50 GB or more so an area based database selection UI is absolutely crucial for that.

soupslurpr

yellow-leaves Yes, for apps with the precise location or Wi-Fi or Bluetooth scanning permissions to be able to scan Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth needs to be on, or always-on Wi-Fi scanning or always-on Bluetooth scanning needs to be on for it to work when they're off. The toggles in Settings > Location > Location services, apply to all apps.

Granite

You asked for real world use cases for precise location services, I need to use Paylocity app to clock in and out for an employer. It's mandatory, and the geofencing works fine under Google, but not at all with GrapheneOS.

yellow-leaves

Granite
I guess then relevant question is - Can you clock in while using GrapheneOS location service if you enable network location?

Granite

yellow-leaves
GrapheneOS Network location was already enabled.

I had to set up a separate profile, just to install Paylocity and completely expose it to Google's solution. That profile doesn't run in the background, nor has phone or messaging access. It's just for clocking in and out of the payroll app.

soupslurpr

Granite have you tried on the latest release? There were some compatibility fixes a couple releases back that might've been why it wasn't working for you with GrapheneOS' Network location turned on.

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