GrapheneOS / os-issue-tracker

Issue tracker for GrapheneOS Android Open Source Project hardening work. Standalone projects like Auditor, AttestationServer and hardened_malloc have their own dedicated trackers.
https://grapheneos.org/
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Allow disabling Wi-Fi scan throttling outside Developer options #4212

Open AtmosphericIgnition opened 1 month ago

AtmosphericIgnition commented 1 month ago

As far as I'm aware, GrapheneOS plans to eventually ship support for using a network location service provider. Collecting data for open services like BeaconDB requires using a dedicated app for collecting the data. The quality and quantity of data collected can be improved by disabling Wi-Fi scan throttling in Developer options. Since the GrapheneOS team has encouraged submitting data to open location services, it would be nice if GrapheneOS made this effort easier by allowing the disabling of Wi-Fi scan throttling without having Developer options enabled. Some network analysis apps can also benefit from this setting being disabled. As far as I understand, the only downside of disabling Wi-Fi scan throttling is increased battery usage when an app is actively scanning for networks.

I wanted to link a blog from Mozilla, which talked about how Wi-Fi scan throttling was impacting their MLS data collection efforts, but I haven't been able to find it.

thestinger commented 1 month ago

Since the GrapheneOS team has encouraged submitting data to open location services.

We were discouraging using a particular service. We're not actively promoting BeaconDB and they're too cozy with problematic people so we're not currently as enthusiastic about it as we were before.

AtmosphericIgnition commented 1 month ago

I understand, but I still believe this "Developer option" has valid uses outside OS or app development.