How does my iPad 16GB Wifi know my location?

Inquitus

This is bugging me, on my home and office wifi, it correctly pinpoints my location to within 5m.

It has no GPS, no 3G Antenna, so must be relying solely on wifi, wifi gives it my ip, and nothing else to my knowledge, and my ip is good enough to pinpoint me to dublin somewhere only.

Any ideas?

Inq

Gordon

It's to do with your IP somehow, I can get a close match on my ipod touch.

blaz

Google Streetview cars have been driving around the world and picking up the MAC addresses and locations of access points. Also, whenever someone uses GPS with Google Maps and is simultaneously logged into Google, those two details can be correlated and saved (i.e. at that point in time that WiFi was at that location, because this users' GPS told me so). All that data is saved in a huge database at Google.

When your iPod is logged onto your Wifi, it can also pick up neighboring WiFi access points. Even if Google does not know the location of your WiFi, it might know the location of the other WiFi's around you because it has picked up their signals and Google has previously learned about the location of those access points. Even if any of them have moved, there might be three others that haven't moved, so the probability is high that the location is correct.

So this feature is based on the MAC address of WiFi access points that can be picked up in your area.

This obviously works best in densely populated areas where your iPod can pick up many nearby WiFi access points.

Leiva

blaz wrote: »

Google Streetview cars have been driving around the world and picking up the MAC addresses and locations of access points. Also, whenever someone uses GPS with Google Maps and is simultaneously logged into Google, those two details can be correlated and saved (i.e. at that point in time that WiFi was at that location, because this users' GPS told me so). All that data is saved in a huge database at Google.

When your iPod is logged onto your Wifi, it can also pick up neighboring WiFi access points. Even if Google does not know the location of your WiFi, it might know the location of the other WiFi's around you because it has picked up their signals and Google has previously learned about the location of those access points. Even if any of them have moved, there might be three others that haven't moved, so the probability is high that the location is correct.

So this feature is based on the MAC address of WiFi access points that can be picked up in your area.

This obviously works best in densely populated areas where your iPod can pick up many nearby WiFi access points.

Spot on Blaz .

It seems they (Google) are getting in a bit of hot water due to the fact that the cars are collecting a little bit more than just street photos .
I for one am a little uncomfortable and want to know exactly what they are doing/collecting .
In Germany they admitted to downloading emails from unsecured private wifi networks .

More Info here
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/google-cars-picked-up-private-data-from-homes-2183504.html

cornbb

http://www.skyhookwireless.com/

It pinpointed my location to an accuracy of about 5 metres in my office. Freaked me out, so it did.

Inquitus

blaz wrote: »

Google Streetview cars have been driving around the world and picking up the MAC addresses and locations of access points. Also, whenever someone uses GPS with Google Maps and is simultaneously logged into Google, those two details can be correlated and saved (i.e. at that point in time that WiFi was at that location, because this users' GPS told me so). All that data is saved in a huge database at Google.

When your iPod is logged onto your Wifi, it can also pick up neighboring WiFi access points. Even if Google does not know the location of your WiFi, it might know the location of the other WiFi's around you because it has picked up their signals and Google has previously learned about the location of those access points. Even if any of them have moved, there might be three others that haven't moved, so the probability is high that the location is correct.

So this feature is based on the MAC address of WiFi access points that can be picked up in your area.

This obviously works best in densely populated areas where your iPod can pick up many nearby WiFi access points.

Makes sense, even if its a bit 1984. My phone is an android HTC Desire, given google all the info it needs for google maps to locate me to a small area.

Dodge

Gordon wrote: »

It's to do with your IP somehow, I can get a close match on my ipod touch.

the ipod touch has GPS

blaz

Dodge wrote: »

the ipod touch has GPS

No, it does not.

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

I quote:

For iPod touch with Maps, the Maps application provides your approximate location using information based on your proximity to known Wi-Fi networks (when on and available). The more accurate the available information, the smaller the circle identifying your position on the map. The feature is not available in all areas. Known Wi-Fi networks are predominantly in urban areas. In order to provide your location, data is collected in a form that does not personally identify you. If you do not want such data collected, do not enable the feature. Not enabling the feature will not impact the functionality of your iPod touch.

blaz

mixednuts wrote: »

Spot on Blaz .

It seems they (Google) are getting in a bit of hot water due to the fact that the cars are collecting a little bit more than just street photos .
I for one am a little uncomfortable and want to know exactly what they are doing/collecting .
In Germany they admitted to downloading emails from unsecured private wifi networks .

More Info here
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/google-cars-picked-up-private-data-from-homes-2183504.html

They used generic software to scan for WiFi networks and save their MAC address and the location they were picked up - exactly what we are talking about here. The software had a bug in that it saved not only the MAC address and SSID of the network but also some payload data, if the WiFi was not password protected (i.e. not using WEP or WPA). Until recently Google itself didn't know that this was happening and it didn't use the payload data in any way, i.e. it only used the MAC address and SSID plus location for the service we are talking about here.

They did not download emails, they just got fragments of payload data as the cars were driving by. Anyone with a laptop could have done the same, as the WiFi networks in question were open and unprotected.

What is happening in Germany is just a couple of politicians trying to boost their ego (and ratings), in fact the politicians are having issues with Google collecting that data but the government itself is very eager to get its fingers on that same data.

naasrd

JellySMS have been quick to make use of this too for iPhone users; there's a feature available for adding your location to a text sent from their App. If you've got to pick or meet someone at a certain location or they're lost etc, you click on the link in the SMS and their location come up on Google maps.