In a minor privacy victory for Android users, Google today announced that Chrome’s Android app will now have the ability to share your approximate location with websites, instead of giving them access to your precise location. The feature gives you a little more flexibility, without giving up your privacy to random websites. For example, if you’re just looking for information about the weather or something else in your area, there’s no need to share your exact GPS coordinates. And of course, you’ll always be able to share precise location data if you want.
Google says approximate location sharing will also be available on Chrome on desktops “in the coming months.” As expected, there will also be new APIs allowing developers to specify the type of location data their websites need. “We encourage developers to review their localization needs and only request precise localization when necessary for site functionality,” a Google representative wrote in an email about the new feature.
It’s unclear what Google’s plans are for Chrome on iOS, but iPhone and iPad users have had the ability to enable approximate location data for specific apps for a few years now. This won’t give you the nifty granularity of choosing your location data for each website, of course, but it’s a useful option if you’re concerned about privacy.
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