[raw_anon_1111]

You realize that if you are concerned about apps tracking you without you explicitly giving it your location, a website could do the same since there are browser APIs that can retrieve the same information only gated by the same OS controls?

When you go to a website, they have always known the originating IP address.

[rejhgadellaa]

Not entirely true. Browsers are paranoid by default (because visiting a website is as easy as clicking a link). Operating systems aren't (because the user explicitly installed an app, it's been "vetted" by app store experts, and because... well, the OS vendor wants you to build native apps and not a website, so they have to make it worth the extra trouble of building a separate app for each platform instead of one website that works everywhere).

Also, browsers tend to bring their own sandbox (on top of what the OS already does). For example, Chromium was able to mitigate Meltdown/Spectre before OS vendors shipped an update (except on iOS where browsers can't bring their own engines, so iPhone users had to wait for Apple to ship an OS update...)

[raw_anon_1111]

Again why would you think Apple the browser maker would be any more or less careful about Safari not allowing websites to access your camera, GPS, photos than Apple the operating system maker?

No one thinks that app review is what stops malicious apps from circumventing permissions. It’s the operating system itself.

And you really don’t want to compare the state of iOS updates to the state of Android updates do you?

[doctor_radium]

Better (?) browsers also have an internal switch to disable location.

[raw_anon_1111]

Controlled by the same company that wrote the OS in case of Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. If you don’t trust the operating system to do the right thing on the OS level why do you trust the same company to do the right thing in the browser?