OUTRAGEOUS! Location on or BLE disconnects!

[Igor FrankenSHTEEN]

I updated to marshmallow 6.0.1 two days ago, on my Samsung Note 4 (Verizon). Prior to that, I was able to leave my location services off, and my Bluetooth connected Garmin Vivoactive, and all my other Bluetooth devices would re-connect automatically when they got into range. My Vivoactive would stay connected to my phone via Bluetooth constantly while it was in range, and would reconnect as soon as it got into range again.

AFTER, the android os update to 6.0.1, if the location services are turned off, my handy smartwatch will disconnect via BLE every hour, and refuse to reconnect until I turn on location services. It is clearly a problem with the os. I do not want to have to leave my location services on all the time, for battery reasons, AND privacy reasons.

There is no reason for Android to require location services to be on, except so they can collect data on us. This is unacceptable. They need to remove the location services requirement for BLE to remain persistent.

Anyone else with me on this? I know I'm not the only one experiencing this, just from looking at the forums.

 

[WrongSort]

I am also using a Note 4 and a Vivofit tracker, and am having the same problem. There is obviously no reason location services needs to be associated with Bluetooth connections (it wasn't before and everything worked perfectly).

This feels like a lame attempt to force me to leave location services on so Google can track my whereabouts. I'm sure they clandestinely do that anyway through apps and WiFi signals, but still... leaving location services enabled all the time feels like I am giving consent, which I am not!