Wi-Fi Scanning and How it Relates to Location

Applications that perform Wi-Fi scans are beginning to ask users to allow access to current location even when the location itself is not relevant in finding available Wi-Fi networks. The reason behind this is that apps that have access to surrounding Wi-Fi networks can then use existing databases (i.e. https://wigle.net) to get coordinates of users with about 50 meters precision, even when they do no have direct access to the device's GPS or location information. Because of this, some systems are now requesting the user's permission to have access to their location when scanning for Wi-Fi networks, to make sure the user is aware that their location could potentially be known in an indirect way.