Android 16 fixes a big privacy flaw in its ‘approximate’ location setting

Many Android apps ask for your current location to show you more relevant results or help with directions, but most don’t need your precise GPS coordinates to do the job. That’s why Android offers two levels of location accuracy: Precise and Approximate. These options are controlled by two different Android permissions and are intended for different kinds of apps.

If an app requests a precise location, Android provides the most accurate estimate it can, usually within 3 to 50 meters (about 10 to 164 feet). If an app requests an approximate location, however, Android will only provide a rough estimate of your device’s location, which may only be accurate to within 3 square kilometers (about 1.2 square miles). This is why navigation apps always require your device’s precise location, while most other apps can function perfectly well with either.

Of course, many apps that don’t need your precise location ask for it anyway, as there’s little stopping them from doing so. You should be wary of these apps, as they might be collecting your location data for tracking purposes. In contrast, apps that only request your device’s approximate location are less likely to be covertly tracking you, as the rough location estimate they receive is too broad to be useful for that purpose.

However, your approximate location can sometimes be enough for an app to pinpoint where you are. This is especially true in rural areas with low population density. In these zones, even a rough estimate can be revealing if there are only a few roads or buildings nearby. That rough estimate might be enough to identify your specific location, defeating the privacy benefit of the feature.

To solve this problem, Google has quietly introduced a new feature in Android 16 called “density-based coarse locations.” Here’s how it works.

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Density-based coarse locations in Android 16

The problem with Android’s old approach was that it always provided the same level of accuracy, whether you were in a bustling city or a small town. In densely populated areas, an approximate location places you among many other people, making it difficult to single you out. As I just explained, however, that same estimate could easily identify someone in a sparsely populated area. Android’s approximate location is supposed to be privacy-friendly, but for people in rural areas, it often failed to deliver.

Android 16 fixes this by switching to density-based coarse locations. The system can now check the nearby population density. If it’s low, it provides apps an even less precise estimate of your location. The goal is to make the “approximate” estimate feel just as anonymous in a sparse rural area as it does in a dense city.

Internally, Android 16 makes this happen by adding support for population density providers. These are components, typically supplied by a system-level application, that determine the population density at a given location. They are intended to be implemented by system packages like Google Play Services, which already provides the APIs that most apps use to get your location. Thus, it makes sense for Google Play Services to handle population density estimates as well. Still, Google designed this feature so that a phone manufacturer (OEM) could implement its own provider, which would be necessary in markets like China where Google’s location services aren’t available.

Although there’s evidence that Google Play Services has added support for this feature, we don’t know if it has actually rolled out. The developer flag for the feature is enabled on my Pixel devices, and the relevant code change mentions it’s intended for “Android B” (i.e., Android 16). The configuration that allows Android to use an external population density provider — such as the one from Google Play Services — is also enabled on my devices. However, that isn’t enough to confirm the feature is actively being used.

One way to tell if this feature is live would be to travel to a sparsely populated area and check whether the approximate location estimate is even rougher than usual. The next time I’m in such an area, I’ll be sure to test this and report back, so stay tuned for the results!

Bluewave – A new, more accurate position engine

Another feature I’ll be looking into is whether Google has improved location accuracy on Android. A source told me last year that Google was testing a more dependable positioning solution codenamed “Bluewave.” This new engine supposedly combines raw data from global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) with correction data from base stations to calculate your position with greater accuracy. According to my source, this would make the Bluewave engine about 2.25 times more accurate.

I heard Google began testing Bluewave late last year with plans for a rollout earlier this year, but I’m not sure if it ever launched. If it had gone live with the expected improvements, we likely would have heard about it by now. The silence suggests Google either hasn’t released it or decided it wasn’t worth a public announcement.

In any case, it’s good to see Google working to make location tracking on Android both safer and more accurate. Location services are a fundamental benefit of a mobile device, but only when they’re used responsibly. Hopefully, Google will encourage more apps to use approximate location instead of precise, as it’s a more privacy-friendly option — especially with the new density-based coarse location feature in Android 16.

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