Add a toggle to disable the green location indicator

[pedro-araujo]

The location indicator is one of the standard features of GrapheneOS as it is mentioned here:

• https://grapheneos.org/features#location-data-access-indicator

This feature adds a green dot in the status bar whenever an app tries to access the phone's location.

This is an interesting feature but it is not very useful for cases in which we have an always running app that tracks the phone's location all the time, such as OwnTracks. For cases like this, the indicator is always popping up every 10 seconds or so, even on full screen apps such as video players, which makes it very distractive and not very useful.

Taking this into account, I would like to propose to add a toggle somewhere in the system's settings that allows the user to disable the location indicator permanently if the user wishes to.

I think this would be a reasonable request and it doesn't interfere with the privacy oriented spirit of GrapheneOS.

[flawedworld]

I think if we decide to do anything like this, we would rather implement a whitelist of apps for this, and then we should do a regular OS notification stating that location access by an app has been hidden in order to mitigate the potential of abuse by for example stalkerware.

[pedro-araujo]

I think that would be a better option as well if the project doesn't mind the extra complexity of the task.

[thestinger]

There is already a whitelist of OS components. The problem with that approach is that it could be too hard for users to verify that it's not being abused.

[RAYs3T]

This is pretty annoying for Home Assistant for example. So yes, a white-list would be awesome.

[RobertdaRed]

Standing in line on this as well. I wish it was just a little green light/ dot. I've got a big oval that covers the clock, battery, signal AND WiFi. I can't tell you how annoying this is. Would appreciate a toggle!

[gitandriu]

My Home Assistant is constantly checking my location, which is intended, so every time I would like to check if I am connected to wifi, if the VPN is active or how much battery I got left, all I see is the green bubble on top.

It is also very distracting when all the elements in my screen are black and white and I try to minimize notifications.

This is particularly annoying in my main profile, where I have the apps I trust and where I am most of the time. Untrusted apps are on separate profiles where I would not mind so much.

White-list would be great.

[RobertdaRed]

Any updates on this?

[Leza89]

+1 — Not having a whitelist is actually detrimental to privacy because you will give less importance to the notification and might miss actual privacy risks.

In my opinion this is not just a convenience feature. "Spamming" this warning with notifications about Automation checking if I am home or at work will just make me ignore the Indicator altogether very quickly.

Edit: It also makes it harder to identify the location data access history of apps in general when the whole feed is just the same recurring Automation task over and over and over

[mikeloeven]

wouldn't an easier solution be a simple fix or toggle that does not allow the green dot to display over full screen media? for the most part the issue is when this pops up over full screen games or media.

Although I would also like to share my specific issue since there are people who sarcastically say just turn off location access for the offending app. For me the app is Xdrip which is used to read data from blood glucose monitors it needs location for nearby device and Bluetooth scanning so despite the app not actually using the location service it triggers this notification any time it reads data from my sensor. I cant disable this without breaking the app and potentially ending up in the hospital so I would like to add some weight to this issue by requesting this be fixed for compatibility with a medical device.

[Leza89]

wouldn't an easier solution be a simple fix or toggle that does not allow the green dot to display over full screen media? for the most part the issue is when this pops up over full screen games or media.

That would mean that anytime you are In fullscreen mode you will not be notified anymore. Aside from breaking the purpose of the notification this might be abuseable.

A Whitelist would fix the issue, preserve the spirit of the indicator and would combat the "kid who cried wolf" problem.

[noelvarelas]

I would love this feature, but at the very least it would be nice if it didn't constantly overwrite the other status icons like battery and networking. A tiny green dot that doesn't interrupt anything else would be enough for me. There totally is a "boy who cried wolf" aspect to this whole situation, though.

[RAYs3T]

There is already a whitelist of OS components. The problem with that approach is that it could be too hard for users to verify that it's not being abused.

What about some sort of the "pause app activity" feature. So that white-list entries are being reviewed after some time? I would like to contribute something here, but struggle with a good concept

[onlycparra]

Any updates on this?

KDE Connect triggers the indicator every time I wake up the screen. So I have to wait 4 seconds just to check battery status, signal or wifi.

It ends up being faster to fully unlock the system, scroll down twice to see the notifications toggles and check the battery in there. A real pain.

Besides the whitelist, I propose to move the indicator to be in the center of the top-bar, around the camera. That area is always empty.

[felixbaumgaertner]

It ends up being faster to fully unlock the system, scroll down twice to see the notifications toggles and check the battery in there. A real pain.

Same problem, it's such a pain.

[onlycparra]

~I just found out that setting the app's (kde-connect) location permission to "allow all the time" rather than "allow only while using the app", makes it not show the green bubble.~

False alarm. KDE-connect was just not running

[ShiftyMcCool]

Just switched to GrapheneOS and checking in on this issue. No network location combined with OwnTracks checking location constantly is making that green indicator show up waaaaayyyy too often. It'd be nice to have network location but, barring that, it would be awesome to get some kind of app whitelist so I can tell it to ignore OwnTracks. Or, if it could be limited to the unobtrusive green dot on the side rather than the one that hides all the useful info in the status bar, that would be great too. Thanks for the killer OS!

[thestinger]

Network location checks are still location checks. The location indicator is for location data in general, not even just those location services.

[ShiftyMcCool]

It's strange, then, that before I switched to GrapheneOS that the indicator did not appear (as often?) even though I was using OwnTracks with the same settings. I assumed this was because of the difference in network vs GPS location. Any ideas on that? Regardless, the indicator is constantly in the way and a solution would be super-appreciated.

[thestinger]

@ShiftyMcCool This feature is not available in the stock OS. They have an experimental developer options toggle which does not actually work correctly and does not notify about all location data accesses.

[ShiftyMcCool]

This GitHub issue is about requesting the feature so I understand that it's not a feature in the stock OS.

All I'm saying is that this indicator was not an issue for me until switching to GrapheneOS. I realize that it was there, but it also did not appear nearly as often. I attributed this to a difference between network and GPS location. I was, apparently, mistaken but I still don't understand why it's far more noticeable now.

Regardless of my understanding of the issue, a solution (either by OEM or GrapheneOS) would be awesome. If this is out of scope for GrapheneOS devs then I'll bark up some other tree or get used to it coming up, as I'm attempting to do now.

[thestinger]

All I'm saying is that this indicator was not an issue for me until switching to GrapheneOS.

This indicator isn't there on the stock OS. It doesn't have it. It only has a developer option which does not fully enable it.

I realize that it was there, but it also did not appear nearly as often. I attributed this to a difference between network and GPS location. I was, apparently, mistaken but I still don't understand why it's far more noticeable now.

The stock OS doesn't have this.

Regardless of my understanding of the issue, a solution (either by OEM or GrapheneOS) would be awesome. If this is out of scope for GrapheneOS devs then I'll bark up some other tree or get used to it coming up, as I'm attempting to do now.

You're misunderstanding this feature request. You wrongly believe this feature exists in the stock OS when it doesn't.

[thestinger]

@ShiftyMcCool This feature is not available in the stock OS. They have an experimental developer options toggle which does not actually work correctly and does not notify about all location data accesses.

It doesn't appear that you read this response before posting here again. You're currently breaking the issue tracker rules and if needed moderation action will have to be taken.

[ShiftyMcCool]

I apologize that this has obviously escalated into something.

By "this feature" I'm referring to the current feature request we are on which is to disable or somehow make the indicator less intrusive. It appears that the feature you're referring to is the indicator itself. So, what you're saying is that I didn't notice this before because it wasn't there. Good to know.

Since it appears that this feature (meaning the indicator itself) is a GrapheneOS creation, then it should be within the dev's abilities to change it. I know there are bigger fish to fry but at least this request is in the right place.

[Compr0mzd]

Yep +1 would be a good idea to either whitelist an app or disable the notification. It's really annoying to get the notification every 1-2min popup on top of the screen when watching a video or a movie

[onlycparra]

Simply disabling would be a bad approach, as you never know who may start collecting location data in the future. IMHO the right approach is to whitelist individual apps, in my case the frequent culprit is KDEConnect.

Thanks to the dev team!

Sep 1, 2024 01:24:55 Compr0mzd @.***>:

Yep +1 would be a good idea to either whitelist an app or disable the notification. It's really annoying to get the notification every 1-2min popup on top of the screen when watching a video or a movie

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[Compr0mzd]

Simply disabling would be a bad approach, as you never know who may start collecting location data in the future. IMHO the right approach is to whitelist individual apps, in my case the frequent culprit is KDEConnect. Thanks to the dev team! Sep 1, 2024 01:24:55 Compr0mzd @.>: Yep +1 would be a good idea to either whitelist an app or disable the notification. It's really annoying to get the notification every 1-2min popup on top of the screen when watching a video or a movie — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub<#1886 (comment)>, or unsubscribehttps://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABNEDAF2BYQR7IPKSJUXLILZULFNLAVCNFSM6AAAAAATUECGCSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDGMRTGIZDSNRYGE. You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: @.>

Well it's a possibility I'm not asking that devs should get rid of it. However I want the possibility that users get the right to chose what they want. Knowing what app gets my location is already a thing because I gave them explicit permissions