My new clothes washer has an app.

Neat!

The app requires location information or it won't start...

Fuck LG.

@AkshayTolwani what does location have to do with communicating?

@AkshayTolwani Why the hell would I want to allow it ever?

@F1973

I think he means that in android land bluetooth is actually tied to location services. Google does this because you could use bluetooth scanning for devices to identify where someone is.

So in that way he's not wrong, on that point.

Having said that the app is still stupid fucked because bluetooth is only used for setup... after that it is all communication over the internet / Wi-Fi so the requirement for location permissions on for just the app to run is stupid.

I suspect that LG keeps the location services as a requirement because other devices that use it (not my washer) require bluetooth all the time.

@N00bPancakes
Google put 200+ of base system permissions into android (and you can add your own). Around 2017, they decided the users are too dense to understand it, so they changed the way it works - so the app asks for a broad category of permissions, and then can ask the user to confirm.
Also - they ask only after install, not before.
and... when an app gets a category permission, it can add more permissions from that category, and not require user confirmation again.

Read the app FAQ - they explain why they need the location permission (bt comms, and wifi scanning required for the COARSE location permission)

@F1973
target ads I do believe..
information brokers..
users not aware about freedom stuff..

I’d fucking requested fucking refund.

@uyouthe I wouldn’t buy a washer with WiFi or Bluetooth anyway. Why would it ever need a connection to wash my clothes? To tell me when it’s done? That’s what a buzzer/reminder is for. 🙄

@Root gotta work with what you have. I also prefer machines with old school controls because I can’t imagine the situation where I need anything more than timer in terms of automation in my machine

Decompile, remove it, recompile.

@F1973 Yes.

The shit thinQ app requires it. Because it's used by other iot devices. So by default it requires it.

"Your Location –Access to your location is required for ThinQ app to obtain weather information and search for Wi-Fi networks nearby."

Just throw a VPN on ur router and you're good.

Everything is a tradeoff these days. Security for convenience.

I did some work with the Android bluetooth APIs. As mentioned above, they (hopefully) aren't trying to track your location. If they wanted to make the connection process easier, for example scanning for and finding only nearby LG devices, they would have access to all nearby bluetooth devices. Android requires location access for this because some of those nearby devices could be BLE beacons which have a known location. Without this, malicious app could use bluetooth scanning to track you, without you knowing about it.

Wait a second why a washer has a mobile app ? What type of sorcery is this

@Mb3leb I can start it remotely... well if I ever gave the app the permissions required.

@N00bPancakes so you put your clothes in the washing machine, then you leave and after z hours you turn it on?

Pointless.

@Mb3leb I think the use case might be that you want it done just as you get home.

Depending on the clothing there are some you don't want to linger in the washer after it is done. It's a corner case, but still a valid one IMO.

Also the washer does send me a message when it is finished running, I'm terrible at forgetting about that for days sometimes.

@N00bPancakes does it cost a fortune?

@Mb3leb Washer wasn't cheap, but I don't think it was that much more than most washers of its kind, wasn't tip top of the line. The whole bluethooth / wi-fi feature is pretty common on most of LG's washers.

The one thing I'll give them credit for (at the moment) is you have to actually press a button each time on the washer when you want to turn on remote access type stuff like remote start. It isn't just on all the time, good concept, hopefully backed by good code / security.

Rename APK -> ZIP, extract.

Use JD to decompile classes. Pull the entire thing into a new Android studio project.

Modify as you please.

Fiddle around with class path dependencies. This is probably the most annoying part.

Repackage and then sideload with ADB.

Exercise those "free to repair" rights.