this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
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Privacy
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How do you deal with this? Or are you using iPhone or something else?
I don't ☹️
There is a hidden LocationServices system app from Qualcomm that proxies the communication on some devices - however removing this causes a bootloop from what I've read, and would prevent Android from being able to identify your location even if it didn't cause a bootloop.
I use a Fairphone 3 though with a bunch of Google services in the stock OS disabled, so I've settled for just keeping my location data out of Google's hands
Edit: add info
Just decompile Qualcomm's platform service and stub out the right system calls!
"Just"
You get pretty good at it after you do a couple. I also came up with a way to manually start a platform service with strace and a custom SELinux context, but that was a few years ago and I left all of that work with my previous employer.
I actually wanted to get a Fairphone 3 because of headphone jack but I got really good deal on a Fairphone 4 so I took it instead.
Is this document for every Qualcomm device? I'd be interested to remove such calls from my system if possible, but I'm no systems expert, and unlike the other commenter I don't think I'll be able to decompile Qualcomm's platform service just to remove a few system calls.