Fix "Zone Based Tracking" to only track zones, not exact coordinates

Home Assistant Android version: 1.11.0-215

Android version: 9

Phone model: OnePlus 5

Home Assistant version: 0.112.2

Last working Home Assistant release (if known): n/a

Description of problem:

The Zone Based Tracking option heavily implies that the exact location won’t be shared with the HA instance, just the zones, calculated phone-side. I realized a bit late that it still means that very accurate location data is shared. I think there should be a separate option on the app for “Share exact location” in the location settings.

I consider this as a bug, as it’s really unclear for users who install the companion app that they will be fully tracked. I think most users of HA are privacy conscious, and don’t want to track all their family all the time, just use the app to automate certain geofenced locations. At minimum the current behavior should be clarified in the app.

I found this topic that discusses this problem, as it seems I’m not alone with my expectation, or the need for less invasive tracking: https://community.home-assistant.io/t/how-to-use-location-tracking-only-to-detect-home-away-states-without-knowing-the-exact-location/187038

[adarazs]

Thanks for the explanation, @dshokouhi. You’re making good points regarding how much easier it is to let Home Assistant Core handle the zone calculations. I understand the concept of these various GPS trackers, however I never used any of them, exactly for privacy reasons. If I would be the only user of my HA instance, it wouldn’t matter, but I don’t want to fully track other users of the home automation.

I guess the right thing to do here is to open a separate issue with an feature request for this to be implemented on the app-side, as it seems to me that doing these calculations phone side is not impossible, just “duplicating functionality” from HA Core. Usually that’s not great, but in this case it would serve a good purpose, namely increased privacy, by the coordinates not leaving the phone.

Do I understand it correctly that this is possible as, the zone centers and radii are known?

I believe during on-boarding when we ask for location permission we mention this there. The user is explicitly granting location permission of their device to the app when they accept the prompt.

Huh, okay, I think I installed the companion app very early on before the on-boarding part was added to the app. In this case I will close this issue, but I’d still like your input on whether it’s worth asking for a proper phone based zone tracking.

[adarazs]

@pepjo I did not open an issue about it, sorry. My Tasker automation and a REST API call to update things in HA worked solidly over the years when entering/exiting zones, so I did not need it that badly. However it would be still neat to have this in the companion app, so please open an issue if you feel strongly about it, I’d +1 it. 😃