On Android 12 and above, this article does not apply.
The Airthings app uses Bluetooth low energy to search for and communicate with your Airthings devices.
On Android 11 and below, for Bluetooth to work properly, location services (GPS) must be enabled as it is a requirement on these Android versions.
If not, scanning for devices will fail silently. The Airthings app will remind you to turn this on again.
Requesting location permission
The first time your Airthings app opens, it will explain this to you. When you tap "Proceed", an Android system popup will show. To enable your Airthings app to use Bluetooth, you need to accept this permission.
If you do not agree to share location data with the app, the request will show again.
Denying location permission
If you choose to deny location permission several times, the system popup will no longer show after the explanation. To recover from this situation, follow the below steps:
On your phone, open the Settings app.
Tap Apps & notifications.
Tap the Airthings app. If you can't find it, first tap See all apps or App info.
Tap Permissions. If you allowed or denied any permissions for the app, you'll find them here.
To change a permission setting, tap it, then choose Allow or Deny.
Use of location data
By granting the Airthings app access to your location data, Airthings will not use your location for anything.
Your location data is only stored in Airthings' systems if you share it explicitly when adding a device to a location. This information is then used to provide you with outdoor air quality data on the Web Dashboard ( https://dashboard.airthings.com ).
If you chose to share location data when adding a device to it, radon data is also used anonymized for research and educational purposes (https://radonmap.com).
Read more
If you are interested in reading more about the requirements from Android for location permissions and Bluetooth low energy, the following link will provide more details:
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/connectivity/bluetooth-le#permissions