[kop316]

I'll copy an earlier post of what I found:

On Android, I noted before that when I turned on and off location services, the GPS lock was near instantaneous (i.e. when I turned on location, Google Maps located me with GPS precision immediately. There could be other ways of how this happens, it was noted in another post of mine, but that had still had me a bit suspicious. I replaced Google Play Services with microG recently (https://lineage.microg.org/). I then saw that it was MicroG, NOT the OS, that had control over my location, and MicroG still tracks my location when Location is off(https://github.com/microg/android_packages_apps_GmsCore/wiki...).

While none of this conclusively points to Google Play Services tracking me when it is off, the way that Android is set up makes me very strongly suspect that's what they did.

[lallysingh]

By tracking, do you mean the phone keeping track of its own location, or it sending location data back to Google?

Google maintains a database of wifi networks and their locations (I don't know the ways this data is acquired) to help triangulate the position: https://www.quora.com/How-does-android-use-WiFi-to-get-your-...

[lucideer]

> I don't know the ways this data is acquired

It's been acquired from a range of sources. Most notably, Google Streetview cars collected a very large initial data set. Once you have that, it's quite easy to maintain an up-to-date dataset by verifying new routers picked up against nearby known routers (as well as verifying against GPS sensor data obviously).

This tech is not only in Android phones, but also every Chrome browser, so that's a lot of incoming data. The API used to be used by iOS and Safari (before Apple Maps) and Mozilla Firefox (before they launched their own WiFi and cell network database; theirs is released under CC0 though so I'm sure Google use their data too).

There are also other competitors to Google, Apple, Mozilla here with their own databases, like Skyhook, Navizon, AlterGeo.

[kop316]

By tracking, I mean MicroG/Google Play Services controls location services, not Android OS.

[lallysingh]

.. but does the location leave the device?

[kop316]

That's a great question. I cannot conclusively say that Google Play Services does that, but I cannot think of another reason for why Android would be set up that way.

I welcome any alternative conclusions though.

[lallysingh]

Quite possibly for sensor fusion. E.g., combine with WiFi triangulation, accelerometer deltas from last fix, etc.

Play Services has a lot of stuff in it because it's easy for Google to upgrade it without going through phone vendors or carriers. It was a way to counteract the effects of many phones being on old versions of Android.

[greenhouse_gas]

Wait, microG does this stuff too? Or did you mean OpenGApps?

[kop316]

OpenGApps is Google Play Services, the only thing open about it is the script to get Google's Apps.

I meant MicroG, it is documented on their site (see the link).