Questions tagged [geolocation]

Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object

153 questions
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How does Google know where I am?

Whenever I open the Google Maps app on my Android mobile phone, Google always seems to know my location, and it is very accurate (usually it places me on the map even in the correct room). Also, this happens even if both WiFi adapter and GPS are…
MNLR
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Should I contact the manufacturer if their product allows access to other users' location information?

I recently purchased a satellite communicator that allows me to send a map of my location to friends and family while I'm hiking in the wilderness. While testing out my product, I noticed that the url was constructed as…
Lil' Bits
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How does DuckDuckGo know my native language even though I am using a VPN in a country with a different language?

I recently started using a VPN and I've felt more comfortable browsing the Internet. My VPN allows me to select another country through which my traffic is routed to make it appear I'm located in that particular country. "What's my IP" and similar…
S. Rotos
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Is there any actual security benefit to restricting foreign IP addresses?

I am currently outside the US trying to log in to my health care provider's website and the connection just times out. I reached out to them on Twitter and they told me that as a security measure they block connections from outside of the US and…
Matthew Nichols
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How does Google Maps know where I am, when I'm using a VPN?

How does Google Maps determine my location? I've gotten some understanding of Google Maps' geolocation methods from here: http://friendlybit.com/js/geolocation-and-google-maps/ In the newer browsers (all but IE6, IE7, or IE8) may ask you for your …
user10732
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Is the UK Parliament e-petition system trustworthy?

Over the last few days, I've been hearing often about the petition to (pratically) "repeat" the Brexit referendum and I noticed that it is an online petition. I noticed that the "sign petition" form just requires name, email address, and postcode,…
Matteo Umili
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How can html5 geolocalisation bypass my vpn?

About two months ago I've decided to use a VPN all the time (it's launched at startup) for various reasons, privacy being the first one. But recently I realized that if you agree to share your location when an HTML5 geolocalization pops up in…
drov
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Can someone get my home address if I click on a link to a IP logger?

So I was going through my email and accidentally clicked on a suspicious link. It was a quickmessage.io link, which I had no clue what it was. When I clicked on it, my anti-virus came up and blocked it from accessing it, saying that the link may be…
A.james
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How do location-based apps avoid getting cheated by emulated GPS?

Some apps like Foursquare require the user to "check in" at physical places, in order to gain money benefits. Given that emulated GPS are available for customized versions of Android, it sounds easy to trick such apps. Given the monetary…
Nicolas Raoul
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How can you fake geolocation in Firefox?

Google and many other sites know my correct location. How can I fake my location without using a VPN, proxy, Tor or similar? I went to about:config and looked for geo. What I think I have to modify is geo.wifi.uri? Maybe we can put in false…
cnmesr
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Is it practical to pre-blacklist certain GeoIP regions?

In recent events, a server I've been managing with has been under a few attacks, a risk you take when hosting a web-server. The firewall has been set up properly to only allow connections through the ports used. The thing is, there was brief…
Lighty
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Find IM user location via netstat?

I got sent an article today (http://hakerin.com/facebook-user-location-finder-noobs/). With the click-bait title "Facebook User location Finder" Of course I clicked it. Going through the "article" there is not a lot of details given. And I thought…
LoJoe
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Ingress and Pokémon GO collect a lot of data - what impact could this have on my privacy or security?

The Augmented Reality games from Niantic, Ingress, (where players travel to specific GPS locations to destroy and rebuild virtual targets, link locations, and team up with other players in order to carry out missions) and Pokémon GO (a reworking of…
Rory Alsop
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How is Facebook locating me when I use a VPN?

I am using a private VPN network for my internet connection. But it seems that if I go to http://m.facebook.com and try to check in, Facebook sees my location properly. My IP address seems to be from USA. I have cleared all the cookies. If Facebook…
opc0de
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What tools are available to identify which country a specific IP address is located in?

In trying to identify the country a user logs in from, or to block country ranges for whatever reason (for example regulatory requirements) what tools, whether online or offline, are available?
Herr
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