Android App Security · Permissions in Depth · Lesson 4 of 5

Location, Photos & the Picker

Share less with approximate location, the photo picker and privacy indicators.

How much location to share

Location used to be all or nothing. Since Android 12, when an app asks for location you can choose between two levels.

• Precise location is as accurate as the phone can manage, usually within about 50 meters and sometimes within a few meters.
• Approximate location is only accurate to within about 3 square kilometers, roughly 1.2 square miles. That's enough to know which part of town you're in, but not which house.

Plenty of apps work fine with approximate location. A weather app, a news app showing local headlines, or a store app finding your nearest branch don't need to know which street you're on. Turn-by-turn navigation and a running tracker do. If you pick approximate, the app gets only approximate location, even if it asked for precise. It can ask you to upgrade later when a feature truly needs it.

Background location means an app can get your location when you aren't using it, which is the "Allow all the time" choice. Android 10 made it a separate permission. Since Android 11, the pop-up no longer even offers "Allow all the time." The app has to explain why it needs it and send you to its permission page in Settings, where you choose it yourself. Android may also notify you later that the app has been using your location in the background, so you can rethink the choice.

The two choices work together. If you grant background access but only approximate accuracy, the app gets approximate location in the background too.

Background location is the most revealing kind, because it can map where you sleep, work and spend your weekends. Very few apps deserve it.

Photos, indicators and the dashboard

Photos can reveal faces, places, documents and screenshots of private chats. Android gives you two ways to share only some of them.

The photo picker is a system screen that lets you choose specific photos or videos to hand to an app. The app gets only what you pick, and it doesn't need any photo permission at all. The picker works on Android 11 and newer phones that receive Google system updates, and Google offers a version for many older phones through Google Play services.

Some apps still ask for permission to see your photo library. On Android 14, for apps built for it, the prompt includes Select photos and videos alongside full access and denying access. Choose it and the app can see only the items you pick, and you can change the selection later. Apps that haven't been updated for this get the selected items only for the current session.

Android 12 also added tools to catch apps in the act.

• Privacy indicators are a small icon in the status bar whenever an app uses the camera or microphone. On many phones it's green and shrinks to a dot. Open Quick Settings and tap it to see which app is using them.
• Camera and microphone toggles in Quick Settings cut off access for every app at once. Apps see a blank camera feed or hear silence.
• The Privacy dashboard, in the Security and privacy part of Settings on many phones, shows a timeline of which apps used your location, camera and microphone. It covered the last 24 hours at first, and newer versions can show the last 7 days.

If an indicator lights up when you aren't using the camera or a voice feature, check which app it was and review its permissions.