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Re: wireless geolocation

2017-06-07 11:59:01
On Wed, Jun 07, 2017 at 12:36:56PM -0400, Ted Lemon wrote:
On Jun 7, 2017, at 12:06 PM, Theodore Ts'o <tytso(_at_)mit(_dot_)edu> wrote:
On many platforms you can turn off locaion services (such as those
that depend on sending which cell towers or WiFi AP's your phone can
see) off.  This is true for Android, IOS, and Windows 10.

Unfortunately there is typically no way to turn off just the location
service that's broken.   Also, web sites guess your location
regardless of whether you have location services enabled: it only
takes one person with a phone that's reporting the BSSID of its AP to
something that does geolocation to leak it.   So asking people to shut
this off on the client isn't going to improve the UX problem for
anyone, unfortunately.

Indeed.

This thread is ultimately caused by people wanting geoloc to at least
work correctly if it is used at all, not by people who prefer privacy.
Disabling location services on your devices will only make geoloc worse
for users who want geoloc to work.

If the gear allows it, just changes the BSSIDs and be done for now.

Maybe we need a WG to improve geoloc in general.  Though given some of
the issues described in this thread (e.g., geoloc providers not trusting
self-reported [by network providers] location information), I'm not sure
it can be done.  I'm OK with the idea that geoloc can't be improved.

Nico
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