According to the posted link, the network can be turned off entirely if you wish, and you could just not use Google Play Services on your device, and that should also stop this.
This is mostly Bluetooth LE so that you can use their new device finder network if your phone gets lost. Thieves often turn off the phone as the first step, so this may help a lot of people recover their devices.
The question is: when a phone is turned off is it really turned off? The amount of software that needs to be running to manage Bluetooth leds to to believe they simply kill all applications (including the UI) and most services and leave the kernel and a few other things running. I might be wrong, but I would like to see some clarification on that.
Can someone explain where the code for this will be located (aosp, gsf)? How can I make sure that it will never ever be activated? What Graphene's response? etc
I guess the recommendation of turning off the Bluetooth to save battery, or the sarcastic comment that usually says "bro, just turn off the phone if you care too much about the battery" are gonna be obsolete now aren't they?
This is Google's deployment of tracking apparatus, courtesy CIA. Heil America and thank the greatest country on earth! NSA programs, Patriot Act, CLOUD Act and uncountable activities were not enough. Banning Tiktok is not enough.
Google, its devices or software or anyone shilling it cannot be trusted. This is in the best interests of your privacy AND security.
I will also take a moment to remind of Google's Project Maven, where they used smartphone metadata collected using Google Play Services and Google trackers on internet to drone bomb Muslims in Yemen. Currently, they are facilitating a genocide of Palestinians, as have they done to Middle East for decades. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/google-project-maven-drone-warfare-artificial-intelligence
The only workarounds I see is preferring devices like the ones Huawei has, with no GMS thanks to US sanctions, or buying non-Google devices you can root and flash something as clean as LineageOS (not Graphene Google OS) or AOSP based custom builds. Boutique devices like ones with /e/OS, Murena phones also seem like good foundations to start with. On existing phones, disabling Bluetooth ability for any Google packages using ADB/Shizuku in addition to blocking any Google/Alphabet related domains using HOSTS rules will be a solid strategy.