Tell HN: Google Maps location data is used for GeoIP updates

We are very open about the fact that, with IP geolocation, absolute real-time accuracy is not possible. There are billions of IP addresses and thousands of IP address owners who are shuffling them around randomly. Getting readily updated absolute accurate real-time data is damn near impossible at our scale. The most updated data you can get is on a daily basis, and we process around 1.3 billion requests per day.

The alternative you have to IP geolocation is GPS based geolocation. GPS has its place when used properly. IP geolocation is essentially a database. We are not getting any information from the user or their movement. We are largely inferring the data based on various publicly available datasets combined with an incredible amount of analysis.

The accuracy of our database on the city level is pretty close to 100%, but it is not 100%. This level of accuracy is acceptable to our customers. But you are right. There is a non-zero chance of error.

Now, customers who buy our product have to determine what is the significance of this of error rate. In most cases of IP geolocation, that is acceptable. Imagine traffic data at enterprise scale. Some of these organization are actively fighting cyberattacks on a minute to minute level. So, our data is very helpful for them. It is helpful in providing location context in data enrichment processes.

For advertisement and personalization, this low error rate could have significant impact. That is why we are having this conversation here, because some naively constructed personalization solution forces geolocation attributes on users.

But what we are seeing here is, GPS based location solutions, believing that they are so damn accurate whatever decision these organizations are making is not their fault, it is the user's fault somehow! Which is freaking absurd.

IP location's reasonable accuracy makes a strong case for privacy. There is no tracking involved for a user. For the regular organization with IP geolocation, they have just enough data on the user, and they are not asking the user to agree to a location tracking solution.

If organizations chose IP based location, they would be more lenient in providing easier fixes to personalization, because they are aware of the fact of non-zero chance of error rate. I am not trying to market the fact that not providing absolutely accurate data is a selling point somehow, but in fact I am trying to advocate for organizations to be more accepting and supportive of user requests. Most of the people I interact with about IP correction are not our customers or users of our customers. But we want to make sure they don't face these issues when they use our data or when they interact with someone who is using our data.