This still may be a step above Google's Android. Android now has Google-provided weather on the lock screen that can't be disabled. The only way for Google's weather service to show you the weather for your current location is... to send your location regularly to Google. I'm not even sure that triggers the status icon in Android.
It's hard to make the claim that showing weather on the lock screen is an essential service that user's shouldn't be allowed to disable.
It depends on what granularity we are talking about, but Google can figure out your location only by using the IP. Check the bottom of the page on your next google search results (without being logged into any account), it will show you where Google thinks your device is. It guessed without sending any GPS location or wifi metadata.
It's hard to make the claim that showing weather on the lock screen is an essential service that user's shouldn't be allowed to disable.