"Carlos E. R." <robin_...@es.invalid> wrote
| Hum. The browser knows the location from the IP. Try Google Maps in a
| computer with a new web profile or computer user, see how they get your
| location correct. At least the area.
|
I think we're potentially talking about multiple things here.
Browser location reporting is one thing. Spyware data collection
is another. Locating you by your IP is yet another. As I mentioned,
I use a free database that lets me locate IP within a few miles.
You can also look up a single IP online. That's based on public
records. If I visit Google (with no script allowed, as usual) they
list my location as being 2-3 miles away from where I am, in
a different subsection of town. They're using those public IP
records. That's not a source of addresses.
I have a VBScript on
my desktop to do the same thing. Having processed the MaxMind
free database (deliberately imprecise) and stored the data in an
MSI (software installer) database, I can look up an IP and get
the location. MaxMind will probably give me the next town over,
because they don't want to give away full functionality for free.
But the data is there. What they do give me is very handy for
tracking visitors to my website. At least I can tell a Chinese hacker
from a Spaniard from someone in Ohio. (And I know, for example,
that it's ALWAYS the Chinese who try to hack into my website
by making hundreds of requests at a time to test for things like
Wordpress vulnerabilities. Russians stop by to download code.
Chinese just try to do automated break ins, presumably to plant
malware for driveby downloads.)
Spyware is completely separate. I don't use Google products
and keep all but the base domain in my HOSTS file. I also don't
enable any kind of location data and rarely use a cellphone. Nor
do I use Google maps. If you're using Google maps on a cellphone,
with location enabled, then they will know your location fairly
precisiely from tower signal triangulation. But that's a different
thing. With a cellphone you're basically wearing a tracking collar.
And Google even sells that data in their "geofencing" business.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/19/google-geofence-warrants/
So there's a lot of location tracking going on via various spyware
methods, as well as voluntary location tracking through cellphone apps
that give driving directions, restaurant recommendations, suggested
sex partners at a nearby bar, and so on. During the COVID situation,
governments were encouraging people to install warning software.
If you came within 6 feet of another cellphone sucker with the same
software, who had recently tested positive, the app would warn you
to get tested! Unfortunately it didn't discriminate between having
lunch with an infected person vs passing them in your car.
It's highly unlikely that
Google knows my home address just by seeing my IP, even in
combination with their spyware. I just don't make that much data
accessible. I haven't even seen ads to speak of for decades,
simply due to HOSTS and disabling script. (I don't use any adblocker
software.)
There was an interesting example of the spyware datamining
several years ago:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
Target is almost the last remaining US department store. They
track customers any way they can. As a result of garden variety
tracking and purchase history, they mailed ads for baby supplies
to a teenage girl. The father found out his daughter was pregnant
from the mailing.
So all of that is happening and it's astonishingly intrusive. Target
knew the girl's name, address, shopping history, etc, probably from
a charge card. (I avoid charge cards.) Or maybe because they
suckered her into being a "loyalty member". Or possibly through a
combination of disparate data that they collect or pay for.
The other
day I read from a Mozilla article that Nissan claims the right, in their
privacy policy, to track your sex life, presumably by filming you in
your car.
Crazy stuff, and lawmakers are in the dark. But it doesn't
help when Chicken Littles like Wally go around screaming, with no idea
what they're talking about. It just gives the ostriches an excuse to
keep their heads buried. The facts are plenty shocking without making
stuff up.