Android privacy update to give users more control of location sharing

Android knows you’re sick of being followed around. 

The Google-owned mobile operating system teased new privacy features on Wednesday that, once live, will give users control over sharing their location data in more precise ways. Specifically, a new developer blog post reveals that the upcoming Android 11 operating system will give people the option to limit location sharing with apps to a one-time affair. 

In other words, say you want to let an app know where you are for a very specific purpose, but don’t want that app non-stop sending your location data to random third parties all the time. Going forward, Android says you’ll be able to make that happen. 

“Now in Android 11, we’re giving users even more control with the ability to grant a temporary ‘one-time’ permission to sensitive data like location,” reads the blog post. “When users select this option, apps can only access the data until the user moves away from the app, and they must then request  permission again for the next access.” 

This is unambiguously a good step toward increased privacy for Android users, and follows a similar update by Apple. It both follows and improves upon an Android 10 settings update that saw a long overdue move toward giving users additional privacy when it comes to location tracking. 

“In Android 10, people were given additional control to only grant access when the app is in use, which makes location access more intentional,” explains the above blog post. “Users clearly appreciated this option as over half of users select ‘While app is in use.'”

Location tracking is an incredibly invasive form of data gathering done by an untold number of apps, and there’s a massive industry around buying and selling this data. Telling an app that it can only briefly track your location, as opposed to 24/7, is a small way to combat this industry. 

Importantly, this update hasn’t hit the masses quite yet. The new feature will supposedly be available to all with the official full release of Android 11 — which, at this time, is expected to come sometime in September 2020. 

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In other words, you’ll have to wait a bit. In the meantime, take a moment to go through your phone both to delete old apps you’re no longer using and to restrict the tracking permissions of the ones that seem overly grabby. 

After all, Android 11 may be coming in the fall, but it’s never too early for a little digital spring cleaning.