Found this notification this morning on my pixel 6.
this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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wait, mozilla has a location provider? maybe there is open street map, idk what's the difference between a map and a location provider
Nah, open street maps is part of an open source map initiative with Meta and Microsoft, we're safe there....
My (probably incomplete) understanding is: phones have a GNSS chip (such as GPS, Galileo, or Glonass), but getting location from that takes a long time and a lot of battery. So they estimate location based on other information such as what cell tower they are connected to and the list of available wi-fi networks. This requires a database with all that info, which Google built through its Street View cars.
So the location provider is a service to which your phone sends all the info it has and which replies with an estimate of your location; which means it handles a lot of sensitive data.
ooh does openstreetmap have a location viewer? it would be better for privacy than mozzila and google