Re: [geolocation-sensor] Support geolocation (especially geofencing) in the "background" (#22)

> To be honest, I don't understand why initiatives supposedly aimed at bridging the gap between native and web strive to get functionality only for PWAs.
> 
> Why can't we simply have yet another permission that clearly states that the location could be tracked in the background?

You are correct that it's just a "permission", but in terms of how things tend to go with user agent implementation, it's the path of least resistance. More bluntly, PWA-only is how got push notifications in iOS. There's nothing in the [push spec](https://www.w3.org/TR/push-api/#security-and-privacy-considerations) that really says it needs to be behind PWA, but it's the reality of it.

And if that is push, a device receiving information, the inverse action of a device broadcasting would be more concerning, I'm sure, to implementors. And if there's no easy way for user agents to implement clear notification of per-site background tracking, it probably won't end up being implemented. It's not enough for "Safari is using your location", because that would be too vague if there are more than one sites pulling your background data. The same, non-scoped, issue can happen with Chrome. 

It's entirely possible for the spec to not have a requirement about separating context for users, but we need to be realistic their concerns. As now of the [Permissions lifetime](https://www.w3.org/TR/permissions/#specifying-a-powerful-feature) is somewhat underdeveloped in most non-PWA contexts. 

The question is more, are developers willing to accept that APIs with indefinite permissions lifetime (ie: forever) may not be generally as available other web APIs that all usually only exist while the user is actively in the context of viewing the application (in the foreground)?


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Received on Wednesday, 5 November 2025 18:33:56 UTC