I don't even install apps that request location when it isn't necessary for my needs (active geolocation, like mapping if I'm lost, hikes, and such).

For Moviepass, and for the rare cases where I am lost or really need active directions, I turn Location services on. Then, it gets immediately shut off. (Similarly, I keep Bluetooth and NFC off except when in active, intended use.)

In fact, for Moviepass and other apps that require locations, I install them on a secondary phone that I use only for nosy apps. It just stays in the car. (This is a good use for an old phone without a SIM; most apps will run fine over WiFi.)

And when apps want to update and in the process try to add permissions they didn't originally seek and have no business using (e.g. Stubhub, Magnifier, Flashlight+), I just don't let them update.

My essential stance on data-gathering (and especially location data or communication metadata) is that it represents an irreversible erosion of privacy, and in many cases compromises the privacy of other people who never consented to share their data.

I've used services that (effectively) traded my data for cash, but I think there's a compelling argument that ill-defined location monitoring is underestimated as a personal risk and acutely underestimated as a source of externalities. This is up for debate, certainly, but 'close-minded' seems to presume the answer and deny the possibility of those externalities.

We're at the point where you sharing your data harms everyone else. For example, if there are 1000 people in a population and 999 willing share all data on themselves, the last holdout doesn't need to offer his data. They can already derive it from based on everyone else's.

You have to explain why I'm supposed to care that MoviePass knows where I am when I'm near a theater (i.e. why is this a con). You're acting like this is obvious, but it's not. All your work is ahead of you.

  MoviePass knows where I am when I'm near a theater

The problem is that (1) other apps have Location access while you have Location services on if you have ever granted that privilege, including only at install time, and (2) few people have the presence of mind to turn Location on and back off promptly so that it's only on when the user is conscious of it.

(Note: we all do this all the time in both explicit and implicit ways. We give away private data to obtain loans, we invite people into our homes and to view our bodies, we tell important secrets to build relationships. Privacy is valuable, and we use it like it's valuable. That's what's going on here, too.)

Because I barely value my location privacy, and I get a bunch of useful features out of some of the apps I let have it?

If Waze is using it for up to 40 minutes after traveling, you need to decide if you want to know where the cops are or if you want Google to know where you are.

I always force quit Waze at the end of the trip so that it (1) stops tracking me and (2) I don't waste my phone's battery life on tracking me

It is one of the few app categories that can do that; the other is VOIP.

I don't see why it's surprising that MoviePass tracks your location when you open the app to look up movies or check in. Would that not be obvious?

can't turn those off though on android