Rancher Desktop asks Windows for permissions to access my precise location. Why?

[Greg-Smulko]

Hi,

I got the below popup:

Why does Rancher Desktop ask Windows for permissions to access my precise location (as in: GPS/wifi)?

It feels surprising, to put it mildly.

[jandubois]

Rancher Desktop does not need location data, so you should be able to simply deny the request.

This is something that Windows 11 has added recently: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/whats-new/whats-new-windows-11-version-24h2#windows-location-improvements

We need to figure out if there is a way to declare that the app doesn't need access to this data. Since Rancher Desktop is an Electron app, it is probably triggered either directly by Electron, or some UI component that is being used by Rancher Desktop (e.g. something in Vue2).

Do you remember when the dialog was displayed? Like before the app even started, or only when did a specific activity with the UI?

[jandubois]

ChatGPT generated suggestion:

import { app, session } from "electron";

app.whenReady().then(() => {
  session.defaultSession.setPermissionRequestHandler((webContents, permission, callback) => {
    if (permission === "geolocation") {
      return callback(false); // Deny geolocation requests
    }
    callback(true); // Allow other permissions
  });
});

But that will only help if the dialog is triggered by the use of the geolocation API.