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Comment by cesarb | Hacker News Reader

Which is why Android restricts getting the current wifi SSID (WifiManager.getConnectionInfo()) or the nearby wifi SSIDs (WifiManager.getScanResults()) to apps with the ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION or ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION permissions. If an application doesn't have permission to know your location, it's also not allowed to know your wifi network's name.

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.. from Android 8 (!) upwards.

(I'm still using a perfectly workable phone that is forever stuck on Android 5)

Does it mean you need to turn on location services as well, or just grant the permission? Noticed recently that WifiAnalyzer on fdroid needed location permissions (and explained why) but I never turn location on so just downgraded to 1.9.3.

Which phone? If you're willing to unlock the bootloader and flash a custom OS load, you could probably get 8 or at least 7.

Not OP, but my 2013 1st Gen Moto X (Verizon) is also stuck on 5(.1) and the bootloader is not unlockable.

I guess good time to point out XPrivacyLua[0], a privacy/permissions manager which should be default in Android imo (without having to root/install Xposed etc). But for the power users out there, worth it.

[0]: https://github.com/M66B/XPrivacyLua

Don't get your hope up like I did. From the readme:

     Installation
     Download, install and activate the Xposed framework
     Download, install and activate the XPrivacyLua module

IP addresses tend to have a relatively long lived association with a subscriber, often weeks. So an app which communicates out the wifi names naturally reveals the IP address (unless there is carrier NAT, i.e. on mobile, in Russia). So with a database of such information, the IP also reveals probable wifi names and hence location.

Upvoted big, because I was planning to get my SSID name for some sort of Chromecast wifi synchronisation for the devices.

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