[cookie_monsta]

GPS is definitely the best way of ascertaining a device's location but far from the only one. Google's own location API lets you access fine location (GPS) or coarse (triangulating via cell towers). After public outcry and legal action Google stopped driveby data harvesting by Street View vehicles but it remains unclear if they stopped collecting SSIDs and MAC addresses (I guess if you squint hard enough you could say that these are publicly available data points).

It doesn't take too much tin foil to think that android may be phoning home when it detects an SSID, the physical location of which is already known.