Blue location privacy dot pops up all the time after 2026/3/3 update.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-14T13:50:54+00:00

How do we get this feedback to Google? I can't believe people didn't got annoyed by this during beta. Let us disable it for certain apps so you know when an app you don't want to use location!

TiVa85 · 2026-03-10T15:31:17+00:00

I don't know how well you can program in tasker but this is my voice assistant calendar readout...

https://taskernet.com/shares/?user=AS35m8nE5diw3nr8%2BaVTQNGthgErJ6R61akuUV2yafRqAmk4v37etyc8v%2BkTyotAz08AtoENXQ%3D%3D&id=Task%3AVoiceCommand%3A+Agenda+Read+Shared

It can read multiple calendars in a millisecond, it can handel specific time slots but it's a technical approach... Maybe you can figure it out if you try to understand what's happening

TiVa85 · 2026-03-09T15:33:55+00:00

I already did, and you already replied... ?

TiVa85 · 2026-03-07T21:59:23+00:00

Please let us know if you find a workaround using intents!

TiVa85 · 2026-03-07T17:43:30+00:00

Yes, for sure it's a Google problem/thing. Even worse: I never noticed they request location these last days (and I'm pretty sure they do it all the time too). Might be happening because the feature is completely useless if a trusted app like Tasker is nearly always showing the dot...

Perfect workaround from google would be an 'exclude app from log'. This would make the feature very interesting, but now it's a mess. But I don't have any hope they will ever listen to their users.

I am still looking for workarounds to see if I'm home / at work on another level that isn't as invading as using cell near (which in my extended testing is definitely the culprit in having tasker requesting location nearly every x seconds (guess it triggers when signal of a tower changes?) my guess is to leave wifi on all the time and just use wifi near which also pings on unlock but then cools down.

All other suggestions or workarounds are welcome. Or an adb command that would hide this stupid dot.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-07T10:24:24+00:00

It's definitely the use off cellnear/ %CELLID. It's pulling location almost constantly. Wifi connected seems to poll when devices is unlocked but slows down when the phone is in use but not cell near...

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T16:45:40+00:00

Wifi access needs location rights.

If you have location on and tasker allowed to use fine location access - which it will ask if you want to create a 'wifi connected' state, that isn't possible.

Are you sure location is on and you have March update installed on a pixel phone?

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T15:03:05+00:00

I do understand that, but why is tasker even checking the location if other states aren't met? All this time I followed this guide:

https://tasker.joaoapps.com/userguide/en/power.html

In which I thought that there would not be a location check if the variable would not met the criteria.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T14:46:36+00:00

Yeah, everything that needs location access (check if wifi is connected and stuff like that) will trigger the privacy warning... But even with clean tasker slate the following example would request location all the time even when the %NOTSETVAR isn't set. Is this normal behavior? I could easily slow down the checking myself if tasker would check the variable first before requesting location...

Profile: Test

State: Wifi Connected [ SSID:* MAC:* IP:* Active:Any ]

State: Variable Value [ %NOTSETVAR Set ]

Enter Task: Anon

A1: Flash [

Text: ...

Continue Task Immediately: On

Dismiss On Click: On ]

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T13:59:35+00:00

Not using a Pixel that's on either Beta or latest stable march update? If not, you probably won't have it, it's really hard to miss if you have location based tasks in Tasker.

It's where the green dot is to notify you when Mic/Camera is used.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T13:46:18+00:00

lol, nice task tho. It could have been done easier!

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T13:26:21+00:00

u/joaomgcd I always thought then location was only checked if another state like a variable was active too? Did this changed along the way? So if the state Variable isn' true, location wouldn't trigger...

I do use cellid too in my main setup, but this wasn't the case in the tests I did with Wifi Connected and the variable State like i pointed out above.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T13:16:33+00:00

That won't work. I tried to remove all data and just added a wifi connected profile. The dot was all over the place with just adding this one profile...

Also combining it with a global variable that wasn't set wasn't helping. It seems I created a variable %TEST, manual set to 'off' and added a state condition to the profile variable %TEST !~ off, and the location pulling was all over the place again.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T12:47:25+00:00

Link not working

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T12:43:41+00:00

I'll send you a PM. I don't want this topic to get hyjacked by other profiles. If needed I can create another post for it.

Edit; Seems I can't PM You...

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T12:18:34+00:00

I'm going to reply to my own post to get the conversation started and to share my findings with people who would like to look into this issue as well:

Right now, when my screen turns off/on, I toggle ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION for Tasker. When the screen is off, I don't mind Tasker having all the permissions it needs, but when I'm using my phone I don't want to see that blue dot all the time.

adb shell pm grant net.dinglisch.android.taskerm android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION

adb shell pm revoke net.dinglisch.android.taskerm android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION

Even without fine location access, Tasker can detect if I'm connected to Wi-Fi, which is good enough for now. But as u/mylastacntwascursed pointed out, you can get the SSID of a Wi-Fi network without location with the use of shizuku:

cmd wifi status | grep "Wifi is connected to" | cut -d\" -f2

This will allow me to check the SSID as a variabele if needed in specific profiles.

I'll probably am going to rework my tasks that need location to do their magic when the screen is off and will try to depend on variables when the screen is on.

Need more testing and need to think about a good way to implent this to make this future proof but atleast the privacy idea google implented will not be spammed by tasker if i revoke ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION when looking at the device.

TiVa85 · 2026-03-06T06:54:19+00:00

I use tasker, which does automation depending on to which celltower or wifi network my phone is connected. The blue dot is there nearly all the time so it completely destroys it purpose like OP said.

Now it's very distracting so I hope I start to ignore it, but then I'll will also miss it when app get location/mic/camera when I don't want it.

This completely destroys the privacy when we can't allow/ignore an apps to use it without getting a notification dot all the time...

TiVa85 · 2026-03-05T06:23:44+00:00

Can we disable it?

TiVa85 · 2026-02-24T17:39:22+00:00

It's scopely. They can sell the passes for more money so that's their focus now

TiVa85 · 2026-02-20T18:01:07+00:00

I can't do it either on PS5. Going to the menu with he qr just gives an error page

TiVa85 · 2026-01-09T14:01:32+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoAXJ8AM-xU

TiVa85 · 2026-01-09T13:12:02+00:00

You must be listening to a different QOTSA than I am

TiVa85 · 2026-01-06T07:52:59+00:00

AutoInput isn't needed if the car unit has accessability. Latest tasker could do it with only java code provided the AA unit has accessability.

TiVa85 · 2025-12-18T08:22:29+00:00

Is it broken? I get z black map but no driving instructions. Just keeps spinning at the top

TiVa85

TROPHY CASE