Bitdefender location authorization

Guidame

Hello,

First of all, sorry for the bad english, I'm not a native english speaker.

I recently upgraded my windows installation from W10 to W11. Just before that I uninstalled Bitdefender, and, after the ugrade, redownloaded it from Central. The installation went smoothly.

However during installation a Windows pop-up told me that "bduserhost" and "BitDefender Main Interface" were asking to access wifi for location. After setting everything up in BitDefender, I disabled the access in Windows settings > Confidentiality > Location, hence the screenshot below.

Is it ok to disable this setting ? Or do BitDefender really needs the location permission to function normally ?

Gjoksi

Hello.

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/site/view/legal-privacy-policy-for-home-users-solutions

7. Additional information regarding personal data collection of certain Bitdefender services and solutions

7.2. Parental Control

Where this Bitdefender parental control solution is installed and an active profile is associated with the device, Bitdefender may collect, exclusively for the purpose of providing parental control services, including for display in the parent’s account, detailed information about the use of the device such as: visited websites, used applications and software and their usage period, and the last geo-localization information.

7.3. VPN services

We may process device location solely for the purpose of offering Bitdefender VPN functionalities such notifications of unsafe Wi-Fi or the auto-connect feature. We do not store any details regarding your location or online activity nor do we share them with other entities.

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/site/view/subscription-agreement-and-terms-of-services-for-home-user-solutions

2. Solution Registration

2.8. Bitdefender Solution having the Anti-Theft feature available, may allow You to track the device location, disable access to the device, transmit images that have been captured with the camera of Your device or voice records that have been recorded by the recorder of Your device (if available). You may not use the services to gain unauthorized access or to upload, transmit, and transfer data or information to Bitdefender or third parties by any means. You agree that Your use of these services will be in compliance with any laws which are applicable to You.

4. Specific Terms to Certain Functionalities

4.6 Parental Control

By accepting this Agreement, You provide Your express consent for Bitdefender to process Your child personal data regarding: Profile name, birthdate, and (optional) profile image, the online activity and content restrictions, the last available precise location (if activated) in accordance with Privacy Policy, Chapter “Parental Control” …

So, i believe that the device location is needed for some features to work properly, like: Parental control, VPN, Anti-Theft etc.

Anyway, maybe @camarie, who works at Bitdefender as Principal Software Developer and/or @Alexandru_BD, who works for Bitdefender, can give you more insights on this matter.

Regards.