GeoIP is a product from Maxmind, the post does not actually implicate Maxmind at all. Perhaps a better title is "Google Maps location data is used to localise other Google services"
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Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
51–60 of 68 posts
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#52Google for many years thought my office in Sweden was in fact in central Tokyo. This happened after a vacation trip there. And then it somehow got stuck with the idea.
You have a travel router, I bet.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
*VPNs for IP masking. I guess that ship has sailed....
> *VPNs for IP masking. ah yes, a great counterpoint because users so often don't use a different IP address under their VPN.
Leaking IP addresses is only a security issue for kinds of VPN that are meant to hide these.
For corporate VPNs, virtual private networks or just datacenter routings its no problem since they are for other purposes than masking your IP.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whenever I see people talking about their IP geolocation being wrong, I will reach out to them and try to fix that issue. Even if it is just one person, it really means a lot to them and to us as well. My IP geolocation is constantly wrong (I'm using TMobile home internet). It constantly says I'm in Detroit, or Chicago, or somewhere else potentially hours from where I live. I assume T-mobile is randomizing IP addre…
Solid question. There are a ton of reasons why accurate geolocation matters for everyone. For us it matters, because that is what we do as a business, we provide super accurate data. > I don't want random website owners to know exactly where I am. With IP geolocation, it is not exactly "exact" location. City level? Yes. Zip code level? Kinda Yes. Latitude and Longitude? I would put it as a good possible estimation. O…
> It is used for a ton of reason.....and I just had a long day, please just read the blogs we have on our site. I wrote some of the blogs myself.
I scrolled through and found eg. https://ipinfo.io/blog/using-privacy-detection-data/ and https://ipinfo.io/blog/privacy-adtech-online-targeting/ and https://ipinfo.io/blog/governments-ip-address-data/, but while these might be useful to me as a business to filter the zip codes of targeted ads, they're exactly the opposite of something that provides value to me as a user.
Accurate geolocation might reduce the number of nuisance captchas I have to complete. You write "Our data is also used by governments around the globe because they know they can trust the insights we offer. Every day our databases are updated with the most accurate information at any given time..." but while your databases are the most accurate available, they're not 100% accurate, they're IMO conflating IP with identity and physical location and that just doesn't make sense.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#55> Install google maps
If you install the app locally, it doesn't matter if you use a VPN...
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#56I noticed this just recently — DuckDuckGo failed me and then I fell back to google eventually and noticed that the footer showed the village we live in (tiny) which really shocked me/creeped me out. We're not even on a static IP anymore but a dynamic IP...
Noteworthy is that Android by default has an option to 'enhance location accuracy' and it says it sends data back to Google. I consider myself fairly savvy about taming an Android phone but unfortunately this is not one I was aware of. I disabled that on my partner's phone, which is where I suspect the leak came from (they also use Google Maps occasionally; I suspected that probably feeds the information in as well).
Since avoiding using these things, IP location seems to be inaccurate as it should be again.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#57I have a wiregaurd VPN in my home server in London. During the pandemic I was stuck in the Middle East for a few months. Obviously while there I was VPN-ing all my traffic from my various devices through my home server. When I got back to London, all my YouTube and TV ads were as if I was still in the middle east. Very annoying.
This is likely cookies or account history, not IP geolocation.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#58It should not be surprising that, after voluntarily providing your location data to an advertising surveillance company during the use of free services (using Google Maps) that that advertising surveillance company later monetizes that location data.
Stop giving Google your location if you don't want Google to know your location.
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#59Lol folks werent even reading my thread properly, all, before throwing out the most obvious, invalidated assumptions. All of the top replies implying I dont know what im talking about.
Sorry folks, devices that ive never, ever signed into, that have never left Seattle, now think theyre in fking Mexico anytime i use a google service. Again, not logged in, but also on browsers that clear everything on exit. The ONLY POSSIBLE EXPLANATION, PERIOD, is that Google took my location data from maps in Mexico and tainted my Seatte IP with it (as i was using my seattle-apt-server as my vpn tailscale exit node)
And to elaborate, the ONLY app on my phone with access to my location is Google Maps.
OP, I 100% believe you, sorry for the comments that clearly just tapped something out without thinking it through.
The computer this screenshot was taken from has never left Seattle. It's a naive Windows machine, no VPN, no nothing, and yet... this: https://i.imgur.com/kVgz1RD.png
Re: Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates
#60I work for IPinfo, but this is my personal opinion/account. Whenever I see people talking about their IP geolocation being wrong, I will reach out to them and try to fix that issue. Even if it is just one person, it really means a lot to them and to us as well. For some IP geolocation correction, some providers are better than others, but with Google? oof, tough break. It is really weird to see that the best possible…
> Whenever I see people talking about their IP geolocation being wrong, I will reach out to them and try to fix that issue. Even if it is just one person, it really means a lot to them and to us as well. My IP geolocation is constantly wrong (I'm using TMobile home internet). It constantly says I'm in Detroit, or Chicago, or somewhere else potentially hours from where I live. I assume T-mobile is randomizing IP addre…
My ISP gives a new ip address every time the connection drops. I've given up using geolocation ip on websites as it is always off by 200 to over a 1000 Kilometres.