It is not. App X creates image A with location data.
App Y without location permission accesses image A in read mode. Now image A has no location.
You open image A again from app X and the location is no longer there. It makes no sense. Had app Y written to image A, it makes sense that location data was stripped. But opening a file in read mode should not alter it. Except for metadata of the kind “last opened at …”.
In modern android you do not open files, you use an OS service to get an image, which may or may not come from a file on the device. If you want to open files you need a different permission.
You could argue that android should have a permission level for apps that need image geolocation but not GPS.
It is not. App X creates image A with location data.
App Y without location permission accesses image A in read mode. Now image A has no location.
You open image A again from app X and the location is no longer there. It makes no sense. Had app Y written to image A, it makes sense that location data was stripped. But opening a file in read mode should not alter it. Except for metadata of the kind “last opened at …”.
In modern android you do not open files, you use an OS service to get an image, which may or may not come from a file on the device. If you want to open files you need a different permission.
You could argue that android should have a permission level for apps that need image geolocation but not GPS.
One could argue they a reading service should not alter the thing that’s read. Android is not a quantum state!