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My team uses the Instabug APK on Android (and iOS) and we'd like to disable user location tracking since we don't need it. I can't find anywhere how to do so.

How does Instabug even track the user's location to begin with? Our app doesn't have any location permissions.

Stevie Kideckel
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1 Answers1

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Libraries add automatically the permissions they need. Final manifest file is a merge of your app's manifest file and all libraries'.

You can check the merged manifest by using Android Studio > AndroidManifest.xml > Merged Manifest tab

or

ANDROID_SDK_PATH/build-tools/28.0.3/aapt d permissions yourApp.apk

You can remove the location permission by adding tools:node="remove".

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION" tools:node="remove" />

https://developer.android.com/studio/build/manage-manifests

ocos
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  • That's a good idea, but in this case the library is somehow deriving the location without the permission. None of the location permissions appear in our merged manifest. My guess would be that it's guessing based off the name of the user's time zone and their locale. – Stevie Kideckel Apr 05 '22 at 13:44
  • There are some tricks to detect the location without GPS. Inroom locations can be detected by using only WIFI SSID's. If InstaBug creates a graph of WiFi SSIDs and well-known locations, the application can predict the location. – ocos Apr 05 '22 at 13:58