Detect or prevent if user uses fake location

Question

I will block a user from using my app if they fake the location. So I use isFromMockProvider to check if the location is fake (follow here). But isFromMockProvider() may return false for faked locations in some cases.

public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
    textView.append("long:"+location.getLatitude()+" - lat:"+location.getLongitude()+" - isMock :"+location.isFromMockProvider() + "\n");
}

My case is: I use app Fake GPS location for fake to a location then I disable fake location and go to my app. Then the onLocationChanged returns the fake location with isFromMockProvider() = false

Video recorder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWVvjOCaZiI (in this video, my current location is 16.06, 108.21, the fake location is 36.26,138.28. You can see in last video the location is 36.26,138.28 but isFromMockProvider=false)

Is there any way to detect if a user uses a fake location in this case? Any help or suggestion would be great appreciated.
DEMO project

Answer 1

Risking a Realistic Answer

I'd like to provide an answer that helps the developer understand the public relations aspect of product design, taking the risk of criticism. Frankly, one cannot write great apps in a computer science vacuum. Satisfying user needs and balancing them with security is one of the primary issues in software interface and behavioral design today, especially in the mobile space.

From this perspective, your question, "Is there any way to detect if a user uses a fake location in this case?" may not be the most pertinent question you face. I'm not being evasive by asking this other question that may help you more and it is something I can answer well: "Is there any way to securely get the data from the user's device's geocoordinate firmware such that it cannot be spoofed?"

The answer to this one is, "No."

Android HTTP Client Contract

It is not part of the Android client-server contract or that of its competitors to guarantee user device location information.

Practical Reason

There is actually a market force that will probably push against such a guarantee indefinitely. Many device owners (and your users) want control over whether people know their true location for privacy and home and family security reasons.

Solution

The next question you can ask yourself as a designer of your software is, "How can the app or library work and provide for the needs I seek to fill with a certain percentage of the user community using today's (or tomorrow's) location spoofing software?"

If you are writing business intelligence software or there is some other statistical aspect to your system, then you need the software equivalent of error bars. If you display the stats, then the error bars would be an appropriate graphing feature. Estimating the percentage of location spoofers out of a population of users would require further study.