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I recently noticed that websites are using the weather station set in an app on my mobile phone to obtain my location.

Various people offer localisation services using weather station choices, but I would like to know who it is that is collecting this data and publicising it? It seems it can only be either the maker of the app, or a server it connects to.

By what channel does my data get publicised (in general).

Lucas
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  • Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been [moved to chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/38952/discussion-on-question-by-lucas-how-does-ip-geolocation-get-weather-station-info). – Rory Alsop Apr 27 '16 at 09:28

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On the page you linked to it says

using a proprietary IP address lookup database and technology without invading the Internet user's privacy. The solution is available as database, programming API and hosted solution.

Basically they have a giant database of all the weather stations they could find (as well as other buts of info). And are looking up your physical location by ip, then finding the closest entry in the database.

Daisetsu
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  • You could be right in that it is using my physical IP from my phone somehow, and then incorrectly assigning the weather station based on that (it gets it wrong, but not *that* wrong). But this still leaves the question of how the physical location from somewhere I used my phone has become associated with my home IP. – Lucas Apr 25 '16 at 19:55