How Does Google Locate You?
 

A friend from the Bay Area is staying with me.

He was using his laptop (Thinkpad, no GPS, no cellular modem) on my WiFi network (Apple airport) to browse the Internet (via Comcast cable Internet).

He goes to Google Maps and the application locates him to within 50-100 feet. The exact street corner where we are.

So the question is: how does Google know where he is located?

I welcome our new supreme overlords. All hail Google!

From the IP address he's accessing from.

I posted is question once. I have never registered the location of the IP for my router, it I knows where I am in my house. Crazy.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/599509-how-do-these-things-work-internet.html

Now you've got me Steve :). From the ISP provider's IP, and subnet masking, I can easily see them getting to a street (in a densly populated area), but I think drones have been peeking in your window!!! I give up...

Your provider has to have an IP address for every customer's system, so registered or not, you have one and it will show within a pretty close distance where you are located.

It's not paranoia if they are in fact following you.

Several someones w/ a smart phone "saw" you wireless and passed off its MAC address, SSID, etc to google

I live in a semi-rural suburb. No google van has been down MY street!

But don't I have a dynamic IP? So every time my router is plugged in, my IP changes? Anyway, how would Google know that IP address X is at physical location Y?

I've heard that Google captured the location of every WiFi network on its Street View war driving routes. How would that work? What information does a wireless network broadcast, and how would that let Google Maps subsequently identify a particular router used to browse Google Maps? If I took this router to Alabama, would Google still think I was in Oregon?

As I said... someone (or several) with a smart phone and location serivces were within range of your access point. It broadcasts things like the channel, the network name, the MAC address, etc. This information got stored w/ the location ... and that is what google is picking up.

SmartPhones all have GPS now, whether you like it or not.

We had a weird one recently. We took a picture of my f-i-l in Town A - which is 100+ miles from where we live & 60 miles away from where he lives. When she posted it on Facebook - without a title, location or tag, FB added - near Town X - which is where he lives.

Facial recognition from a previously posted photo?

Ian

Well, if they could do this in reverse, they could catch the thieves that stole 126coupe's mom's stuff. Unless they took their batteries out or didn't carry phones.

Something to think about. I'm sure at some level this is already being done.

Facebook has some serious face recognition. Depending on the camera (iphone?) the exif data may have gps in it ...

It was taken with a Canon DSLR so I doubt that it was geolocated from the exif - which would have pinpointed it 60 miles away anyway. Evil stuff.

Ian

Lots of cameras and cellphone cameras have the ability to embed a GPS location inside photos these days.

Big Brother is Watching you.....

I suspect it's a combination of things. Frankly, the IP address isn't that good a locator. I wouldn't expect the IP to be good for anything closer than 10-50 miles.

I believe it's more about a database of wifi signals and their locations as some of the others have said. Between Google Street View cars having the perfect opportunity to "war drive" and map the wifi of pretty much the entire US, and cell phones that also can perform the same service, it shouldn't be difficult to map any connected device.

Can I set up an Apple Airport Extreme so that it does not broadcast any information?

Never mind. I can indeed. I guess it can still bf snooped but probably a run of the mill smartphone won't.

So, next time I buy a new router, I will set to not broadcast, and see if Google knows where it is.