sun-a-wear requires these Android permissions
When you install the sun-a-wear app on an Android smartphone, it asks for two permissions: Location query and Location query in the background. These two Android authorizations are necessary for the sun-a-wear app to work correctly. Here we explain why.
- Location: sun-a-wear needs your location for two reasons. On the one hand, we want to give you correct UV sun protection recommendations. We can only do that if we know exactly where you are and can compare this data with the weather forecast. On the other hand, Google does not allow you to use Bluetooth if the location permission has not been granted. The reason for this is that your smartphone could use Bluetooth to see which devices are nearby and derive a rough localization from this. Google has decided to clearly communicate this to its users by always having to grant location authorization if Bluetooth functions are to be used.
- Location in the background: Both Apple and Android require that users be asked separately whether the app can also query the user's location when the app is not in the foreground. Granting this authorization is central to the functionality of the app, because it is expected that it will also receive data from the sensor when the app is in the background.
Bluetooth: The sun-a-wear sensor sends its data to your smartphone via Bluetooth Low Energy. This means that your phone has to watch out for Bluetooth packets in the background that are sent by your sensor. By the way, we made sure that the sun-a-wear app does not put a lot of strain on your battery. In contrast to many other devices, we do not establish a connection to the sensor, we only listen passively to receive new measurements. If you do not grant the Android authorization for the location query, your smartphone cannot receive measurements from the sun-a-wear sensor.
If you don't want the app to do anything when it's in the background you can completely switch off the UV monitoring in the background. You do this by deactivating the slider in the main menu. Be aware, however, that in this case it is not possible to add up your UV dose because the app does not receive any sensor data.
But: The location data does not leave your phone and is not sent to our server! Read our article about this Handling your data.
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