I keep trying to “Use my real location” so that Magic Earth will work, but the settings revert to a random location when I leave.
The only way I seem to be able to save the setting to real location is if I choose Use a specific location, back out of the settings, then go back and choose Use my real location. This doesn’t work all the time, but usually if I do it enough times, it eventually will. Usually I need to restart my phone to get it to cooperate.
If I ever go back into the location setting, even if I don’t change anything, leaving will cause it to change to random location again.
How do I get it to stay on real location? I’m new to my area and use a map every time I get into the car to go somewhere plus for planning ahead of trips.
Go to Advanced Privacy settings: is Geolocation-module ON or OFF? (Slider-switch)
Switch Geolocation-module completely OFF to not interfere with location at all.
That will hide my location from all apps, right? If so, how do I use the map? Entering the location I’m navigating “from” forces Demo mode, which doesn’t track where I’m actually driving (in case I make a wrong turn, etc.). It also means I need to know the address of where I currently am.
Maybe I’m not understanding your instructions. I didn’t see Location under Advanced Privacy but assumed it was Settings > Location.
Not sure in which way you look at it, don’t get mixed up and leave the navigation-app aside for a moment:
You can switch general use of location (=GPS) ON or OFF in device settings → location.
That’s the “main switch” in the device if you will.
AP (Advanced Privacy) is another functionality, it will go in between as soon as its own Geolocation module is ON, in order to be able to give a fake location to those apps that ask for location … (and might lead to odd behaviour even when “real location” is set).
AP’s Geolocation module will not interfere at all - when OFF - and Magic Earth should be good to go with the original GPS-signal…(given GPS is ON in device settings of course).
Ah, it took me a minute to recognize I could use the slider next to Geolocation to turn that on and off. I was too focused on the > that gets you one level deeper, into the additional settings.
It seems that turning the slider off creates the same (?) behavior as going a level deeper and choosing the “Use my real location” radio button, exept that choosing that button doesn’t always change the setting (unless you use the work-around in my OP).
It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but I understand we are a small community and things won’t always be as shiny as using google. For me the privacy tradeoff is worth some hassle (at least in retrospect, LOL!). I appreciate you bearing with me as I try to understand this!
… you might want to switch the GEOLOCATION toggle to green. Then in the next step you tap on the > icon and can choose which apps to exempt from the fake location.
This is how I have set it and I do get (as I chose) a real location in Magic Earth (Maps). Well, it’s around 400-500 metres away from my actual location, but apparently not a fake location.
I think the Geolocation toggle is what @obacht was saying should be off.
I originally was doing what you suggested, and that’s where I ran into the problem described in my OP. Moving the toggle to off (rather than clicking Use my real location) seems to have fixed that problem, but I had already selected the apps to exempt before I ever saw the toggle.
Doing my OP actions shows the slider as off, but I don’t know if that’s the same as manually moving it to off. Either action shows the same thing on the AP screen; they both look as my screenshot shows.
“Work as expected” is relative. I’d say “work as well as could be expected, as long as I remind myself it’s not google and think about how grateful I am that I tested it before I really needed to rely on it”!
But yes, it works well enough now that I have a better understanding of what I might need to adjust when it doesn’t do what I expect.
I’ve only been on /e/ for a week, so I’m still getting my footing, but I’m kind of weirdly excited to test the mirroring and dashcam features in ME.
This data privacy journey has been an adventure as I discover ways that some of my apps are dependent on google and other features, e.g., my security cameras don’t display in real time without the VPN off.
your screenshot shows APs hide my IP-feature is ON - just be aware that this means using the TOR network (via the VPN-interface of the device) which will slow things down … like your cameras… have You tried to exempt the cameras from the feature?
Interesting. The app did work correctly after I gave it access to my real IP.
Is AP a refinement of existing privacy settings? In other words, is there an existing strict level of privacy (the VPN), and AP lets you loosen those restrictions app by app?
So…if I choose Use my real IP address but only check one app, are all others prohibited from seeing my real IP? What is not clear to me is whether I can assign some apps as having full access while others have none at all. The way it works now it seems I can only do one or the other.
AP is an eOS-homebrew that also makes use of a few existing features/services
eg the VPN-interface in the device is a standard android feature. It can be used by one app at a time, be it AP or any other app that connects you to a VPN-service.
If “Hide my IP” in AP is ON: AP makes use of this interface and therefore also appears as “VPN” in the settings - it sends the traffic through the (already existing) TOR-network to hide your IP. (any VPN-service via dedicated app that you´d have to pay and configure would hide your IP as well - as it routes the traffic through its dedicated VPN-service-servers).
In AP you have to follow the hierarchy of its internal settings:
Now if “Hide my IP” is ON all apps in the list that are checked will be routed through the feature (=IP is hidden), all unchecked ones will bypass the feature.
But if “Hide my IP” is OFF you cannot exempt (tick) a single app to route it through the feature because the feature is OFF (VPN-interface of device is not used) , ticking apps in the list has no effect at all (I think in that case they can not be ticked anyways)
Another way of looking at Advanced privacy is that it is Really Advanced Privacy.
/e/OS works just fine (if you have careful selection of installed apps) with all AP switched off.
When going about your business in a fairly non hazardous environment it may be easier to get used to the performance of all your apps with AP off. As days go by you might turn on the features one at a time to find out what actually works for you and benefits you.
) the privacy tradeoff is rather nonexistent.
