this post was submitted on 25 Sep 2024

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How do I pretend to give an app location permission? (self.android)

submitted 1 month ago by ComicalMayhem to c/android

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Lizard insurance app mandates you give location permission, refusing access to the rest of the app otherwise. I have 0 intention of giving them this but so far have failed to find a phone number to call them (their mobile website tells me to use the app).

Until I find a different company run by living, real people, my current intention is to use the app to manage my insurance in the meantime. I don't want to give them my location, even if it's only while using the app, so how do I get the app to think it has my location when it actually doesn't?

inb4 just use a computer: nah. It's about spite at this point.

all 34 comments

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[–] dual_sport_dork 59 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The option you're looking for is "mock location," and it is buried in the developer options in the settings menu on your phone.

You will probably have to enable the developer options menu on your phone, which is done by tapping the build number in "about phone" five times. You will get a popup message when developer options are enabled, and then the Developer Options entry will appear under "System" (at least on recent Android versions) in your settings menu.

Note that this is not a complete solution. You still need a mock location app, which you will give permission via this screen to override your phone's reported GPS location.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

And to top it off, some apps will not let you use them at all with Developer Options enabled, though if OP's insurance app is as bad as most I've seen, it'll be too shitty to detect it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Mock my GPS (mock the GPS and Network location providers) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.warren_bank.mock_location/

Hide Mock Location (Xposed module to hide the mock location setting) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.thepiemonster.hidemocklocation/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

For now... Over last few years less and less corpo apps work on non GPS phones

[–] MedicPigBabySaver 1 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Any suggestion for a legit mock app?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

These seem ok.:

From fdroid/neo:

https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.github.warren_bank.mock_location

https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/cl.coders.faketraveler/

Edit: I don't live in Washington DC.

So, I guess it does the trick.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver 2 points 1 month ago

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I use Fake GPS, works as advertised.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver 2 points 1 month ago

[–] dual_sport_dork 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Negative, unfortunately. I've never had a use case to mess with the option.

I found a few on github, though. I imagine any open source tools are probably... less... likely to be thinly disguised vectors to pwning your device.

[–] MedicPigBabySaver 1 points 1 month ago

Okie dokie

[–] Glitterbomb 28 points 1 month ago

A sudden interest in cheating at pokemon go might benefit you. The majority of those spoof tools don't modify the game, they convince your whole phone it's somewhere else and the game goes along with it. It's a constantly evolving cat and mouse game, so there's a ton of tools that might not work for the game, but would still work fine for your purposes. I'd try the easiest method you find despite any warnings that it doesn't work with pokemon go anymore.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 month ago

There are mock location apps that spoof your location, but it might be a lot of extra work to turn on the spoofing before opening the app each time. It also doesn't prevent leaks if it does stuff in the background.

You could also try using the mobile site?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

Out of curiosity, have you tried setting your mobile browser to Desktop mode to view the page?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

XPL-EX can do that and much more. Needs root though

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

May I ask what fake location do you intent to provide? And have you considered that it might invalidate your claims? Like, you say your car had an accident but your location says you're in Antarctica, and they use that to weasel out of coverage.

[–] SatouKazuma 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't think OP is that stupid. I'd guess they'll provide a reasonably close fake location, since their home address is almost certainly known to the insurer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

At that point you might as well just give the real location data, just only when the app is in use

[–] MehBlah 7 points 1 month ago

android and fake GPS.

[–] I_Miss_Daniel 5 points 1 month ago

Maybe run it in bluestacks on a computer?

[–] Agent641 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You can enable developer mode and use the Lockito app to spoof your location.

[–] qaz 1 points 1 month ago

Can you choose to only spoof it for specific apps?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

last time i had to do this; i got around it by using another app that provided fake gps coordinates of your choice.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

for this you have to be sure that just the GPS location is being used and not Google, which can have the location from nearby wifi/Bluetooth devices

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Just access your account through the browser, and then change insurance companies to one which doesn't insist on harvesting your data.

[–] grue 3 points 1 month ago

Upvote for spite!

[–] Andre 1 points 1 month ago

U can use rethink DNS and route only certain apps to a VPN

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 month ago

VPN maybe?

[–] half_built_pyramids -5 points 1 month ago

Different os probably. Graphene. Dunno.