Google Geo-location Dodgy IMO

As my pal @davidpye notes, Google Chrome now has geo-positioning on my laptop. Not just any old rough guess based on my IP address, but on the button within metres positioning. (Try it out - visit Google Maps in Chrome and click the little circle under the compass).
So, how does this work? Triangulation of WiFi signals, I hear you (probably) shout - only there ARE no WiFi signals around me out here in the countryside - only MINE. The combined hardware surrounding me has no ability to geo-locate - all that Chrome has is my IP address and 1 wifi name.

Related service, Skyhook say : "This involves analyzing the Wi-Fi access points around you and your computer's IP address, and sending this information to a Google server to then be translated into a location... WPS determines location based on Skyhook's massive worldwide database of known Wi-Fi access points. "

The only technical explanation I can figure out - and correct me if I'm wrong - is that my wi-fi network has been detected and logged (probably by the Google Street View tripod). Is this alright??? Google admitted last week to "accidentally" acquiring wi-fi information whilst collecting street-view pictures. That's great - if it was an accident, delete it! No? It appears to be in commercial use with SkyHook already. Time to change my WiFi network name... if Google are smart they will just see that the same IP address is accessing and automatically (accidentally?) update their database.
Disappointingly, I'm writing this to (Google owned) Blogger using Chrome.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Installing LAMP Apache/MySQL/PHP on Chromebook/Chromebox

Installing Ubuntu Linux on your ChromeBox/ChromeBook

Changing your Mac OSX Terminal's default text editor