[LINK] Introducing geoloc

[Jon Seymour]

On Mon, Jan 17, 2011 at 8:44 PM, Stilgherrian <stil at stilgherrian.com> wrote:
> On 17/01/2011, at 8:33 PM, Paul Brooks wrote:
>> On 14/01/2011 1:59 PM, Jon Seymour wrote:
>>> So now most Android phones
>>> and most iPhone 4's will be subject to being indexed by Google's
>>> MAC-to-location database at their usual point of presence. The fact
>> "at their usual point of presence" is a bit of a stretch. Personally, every time I've
>> enabled my android hotspot has been well away from my usual location, due to their
>> being no other wifi network available. This feature is more likely to muddy the
>> SSID+MAC-to-location database, as all these 'hotspots' become indexed at such a wide
>> variety of places that it will resemble the song "I've been everywhere, man". Trying
>> to determine a location on the basis that one of these is within range is likely to
>> become extremely misleading.
>
> Or, since the MAC address will tell you what sort of device you're looking at, the geoloc providers could just omit Android devices and iPhones from their process.
>
> Presumably something like this already happens, given that other Wi-Fi devices do move. It'd be easy enough to ignore any Wi-Fi MAC address that looks up as being outside the vicinity of the cell towers the phone is currently talking to.
>
> I'm talking out of my a-se here of course, but is there a problem I've missed? It's already a fizzy database, just a bit fuzzier with more moving devices.
>

I guess the problem is that unless Google actually takes steps to
remove mobile access points from the database, they are going to
inadvertenty provide a means to track individuals that happen to carry
such devices and use their hotspot functionality [ Google, to their
credit, is not making client MAC address information available via
their API, though they surely have it in the collected traces ].

I daresay that most people would simply not be aware that switching on
a personal hotspot may be sufficient to reveal a lot about where their
usual (WiFi) point of presence is to any sufficiently motivated 3rd
party who happens to be nearby.

jon.