Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> they are using Apple's Wi-Fi positioning service, but proxying it through their own servers

My concern with this system is that their proxy is (afaik) compatible with Google's format, which by default is less privacy respecting as it does the location calculation server side and doesn't allow the client to cache.

I'd much prefer if they called out to Apple's servers directly (or through a direct proxy) & cached the AP data locally so over time it will work offline.

 help



No, this is incorrect. The GrapheneOS NetworkLocation client (https://github.com/GrapheneOS/platform_packages_apps_Network...) is using Apple's request format and performing the calculations locally, similar to how it's done on iPhones. The proxy is just an entry in the nginx config: https://github.com/GrapheneOS/grapheneos.org/blob/main/nginx...

The data is cached for roughly 15 minutes. https://grapheneos.org/features#:~:text=It%20caches%20the%20...

GrapheneOS plans to scrape Apple's database and make it downloadable, so Wi-fi positioning could be done fully locally.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: