Android users, beware: Your location data might be being inadvertently shared
Android app developers may be sharing your location with advertisers, according to findings from an Electronic Frontier Foundation investigation.
Android users may unknowingly be sharing their location data with third-party advertisers through a recently uncovered issue. According to an investigation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), this is possible due to certain Software Development Kits (SDKs) provided to developers by advertisers. These SDKs often collect location data by default, meaning if an app has been granted permission to access location information, it may unintentionally share this data with advertisers without the user's knowledge.
The EFF's report highlights a common user misunderstanding: even if an app is granted permission to access location data, users might not anticipate that this data could be shared with third parties. Many users are unaware that granting location permissions to an app also grants these permissions to embedded SDKs from outside companies. The EFF stresses that users should be aware that an app's code may originate from sources other than the app developer itself.
Fortunately, Android users have several options to prevent such inadvertent sharing of their location data. The process to stop sharing location with individual apps is straightforward: users can navigate to the Settings page, select Location, then App location permissions, and then choose either Don't Allow or Not Allowed for each app.
Alternatively, users can toggle Use Location off in the main menu, which will disable location sharing across all apps. This option, however, may affect apps that require location permissions, such as maps and weather applications.
Written by urgent.news from Mashable's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
