You don't need to send location data to reveal it. E.g. WiFi signal strength of different devices and cell tower strength or switching are easy points to help locate someone. Google was already prohibited from collecting WiFi data in the EU (with streetview cars specifically, but what would stop them from using any android device...), you can bet they still do it in the rest of the world.

I'm not on wifi, mostly I'm on a desktop computer with a VPN. I'm not an expert, how much of my location data gets sent when I do that.