[florakel]

For every app that I install I check if the app activated background app refresh. Most of the time it does not make any sense why an app would even need that, other than tracking me. Also disabling it for most apps is one of the best things you can do to extend your battery life.

In Apple's defense it is a hard thing to ask the user whether or not they want to permit "background app refresh". Many users might not understand at all what this means. It is not as easy to understand as "allow app to send you notifications" or "allow app to use your location".

Maybe Apple could force apps to request for each specific use case why they wants to be active in the background. Is it to enable basic functionality of the app or is it to track you? Would be great if the user could choose in which case to allow access and in which case not. Right now it is a blank check you give to each app and it is hard to tell whether the app abuses its permissions or not.

[_bxg1]

Yep. Still less of a blank check than Android though; it doesn't even distinguish background location from foreground location, last I checked.

[Niten]

Yeah that's a limitation of Android at present, but check out what's coming in Android Q: https://developer.android.com/preview/privacy/device-locatio...

[vbezhenar]

Android is weird! I have to ask for that location permission if I want to connect to Bluetooth printer!

[jon-wood]

It kind of makes sense, in that it’s possible to use data on what radios you can see (particularly WiFi SSIDs) to work out a user’s location. Still causes no end of hassle from customers complaining about you requesting location permissions to connect to a WiFi device though.

[svendbt]

I suspect they do this to be able to configure Bluetooth within regional regulations. In US / China you can transmit with up to 20dBm output power at 2.4 GHz, while in much of the world 10 dBm is max.

[blep-arsh]

The location permission is not needed to use Bluetooth on Android, but apps must request it to be able to scan for nearby access points and beacons (both for wifi and for BT), since this information can be used to infer the device's location. Fun fact: turning off location services without revoking the location permission still allows apps to scan for wifi access points and infer your location with impressive precision. The list of apps that have the scanning permission is hidden somwhere deep in system settings.

[TheCoreh]

Perhaps they could show which apps have used background refresh recently on the notification center/lock screen after you haven't used your phone for a while. "Facebook, Uber and 7 other apps have downloaded content in the background [Learn More]"

[leokennis]

iOS already does this for GPS usage. Sounds smart to do the same for background activity.

[misiti3780]

does it though?

what happens if background refresh is on but location -> never?

[mvid]

It can probably be estimated from cell IP