[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Why is Google Tasks wanting access to scan m...
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       Ask HN: Why is Google Tasks wanting access to scan my local
       network?
        
       Thanks to Apple's recent changes, I get to see some curious App
       behaviors as a popup rather via a some router trip wire log.  Why
       exactly are Google Tasks, Email and several others wanting to scan
       my network for devices? What's the "official" benefit of this? Is
       my email program wanting a deep relationship with my coffee maker?
        
       Author : kwdc
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2021-01-29 18:27 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
       | alexjplant wrote:
       | Doesn't Google collect SSID, MAC, and WAN IP data so that they
       | can correlate it with location to improve non-GPS location
       | services? I wouldn't be surprised if some boilerplate library
       | they're using wants this access and they haven't bothered to
       | disable it.
        
       | netsharc wrote:
       | I wonder if there's that kind of profiling; probe MAC addresses
       | and associate them with customer spending power.
       | 
       | E.g. I have Philips Hue lights, the bridge's MAC clearly
       | identifies it to be from Philips Lighting:
       | https://maclookup.app/search/result?mac=00:17:88
        
       | ffpip wrote:
       | It is probably a common SDK, or they just thought 'Why not?" and
       | started collecting it.
       | 
       | Some potential reasons for apps asking the permission -
       | https://www.howtogeek.com/692528/why-iphone-apps-ask-for-dev...
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-29 23:02 UTC)