"By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and services."
Android has over half a dozen settings that must be disabled before the OS actually stops tracking your location and they are spread out to different menus. This is to say nothing of built-in apps like Google maps that have their own location tracking settings which, if changed, return all of the OS settings to their default activated setting. Manufacturers can have their own location services on top of Android’s. Updating Android or firmware means having to find all of the hidden settings again to turn off any that have been reset.
Apple’s policy is in no way unique and iOS settings cannot be implicitly overridden by app settings. The global settings are app-specific. I have location settings on and disabled for every app except Apple Maps, other apps still need explicit permission when they try to use my location.
Nonsense. Sending location data back to Google is opt in. Apple doesn't even let you opt out. It's amazing how many people Apple has fooled with their marketing.
Your own examples are for apps that send the same data on iOS and are subject to the same OS permissions on Android and iOS.
> The Google support page for managing and deleting your Location History says that once you turn it off, "the places you go are no longer stored. When you turn off Location History for your Google Account, it's off for all devices associated with that Google Account." The AP's investigation found that's not true. In fact, turning off your Location History only stops Google from creating a timeline of your location that you can view. Some apps will still track you and store time-stamped location data from your devices.[1]
> Google itself offers at least three support pages on location: Manage or delete your Location History, Turn location on or off for your Android device, and Manage location settings for Android apps. None of these makes any mention of Web & App Activity. [1]
Location history is opt-in. You can get your GPS location without enabling it. With iOS, there is no way to even opt out of sending your location to Apple.
Your article is misleading. The same apps that build a history of your location with Android Location History turned off will build a history of your location on iOS and other platforms. It is not unique to Android. The user is well aware of it — if they search, they get local results, and they know that if they have search history enabled, Google will store everything about their query and interactions with it, including where they performed it. This happens on Android and iOS, regardless of whether the user wants full Location History.
Again though, you're getting off track. We're discussing privacy provided (or in this case, not provided) by the OS, not by the apps the user installs, which are governed by OS permissions exactly the same on both platforms anyway.
> Unlike every other phone platform, iOS does not allow a user to get their GPS location without telling Apple what it was.
> apps that build a history of your location with Android Location History turned off will build a history of your location on iOS and other platforms. It is not unique to Android.
The article that I quoted was to provide background to the comment that you claimed was spreading misinformation. I don't think that anyone in this thread has acted in bad faith and I don't see any benefit to the quality of the conversation in accusing commenters of dishonesty, being sinister or otherwise attacking the individual rather than the issue. I am happy to provide the information that has informed my opinions and I am happy to hear disagreements but a flame war is neither healthy nor helpful. Mobile devices are just tools and neither platform is worthy of this level of personal investment.
> This directly contradicts your original comment.
No, it doesn't. Android lets you get your GPS location without telling anybody, including Google. This is the default behavior, even on Google-flavored Android devices. It is impossible to get your GPS location on iOS without telling Apple.
You're confusing Google apps that send location to Google on any platform when the app is configured to send location to Google (like search), with what the OS does regardless of which app is asking for location or whether the app itself sends location data anywhere.
> I don't think that anyone in this thread has acted in bad faith and I don't see any benefit to the quality of the conversation in accusing commenters of dishonesty, being sinister or otherwise attacking the individual rather than the issue.
You're confusing me with sbuk and izacus, who are the only people in this thread who have engaged in the behavior you describe. Please direct your scolding appropriately.
Dishonest may be a bit harsh, misinformed is fairer. The OP is completely disingenuous. They know what that line implies, they are choosing to convey it as sinister.
It is absolutely sinister. If I don't want to be tracked, I have no way of hiding my location from Apple aside from not using GPS on my phone. No other OS has this problem.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207056
"By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and services."