Google is very scummy in this topic. Probably because they need the amalgamated gps data for their self driving cars?
Nearly every smartphone contains a GPS. The GPS delivers accurate location data for each app which needs it. However, google want you to also use their ‘High accuracy’ location data, which also takes detected wifi networks (and cell towers?) into account. And which casually also ‘needs’ to send you gps data to google. This ‘high accuracy’ location is no more ‘high accuracy’ than the pure gps. In fact, it used to be called ‘low accuracy’ location data for non-gps devices. At most it makes the gps find a fix a bit faster. They just need a justification to get at your gps data.
Also, more and more apps who want location info rely on the ‘Google Location Service’, which only works if you turn on their so called ‘high accuracy’ location. The apps could work just as well with just gps data, but google makes the API for their ‘Location Service’ easier to integrate into your app.
Very shady tactics all around.
