The way google is using this information is when you explicitly enable location services on your device. When you connect to the internet via a web browser and access google services, the browser normally doesn’t relay AP MAC nor SSID to google! They don’t know the public-facing IP address as that is not broadcast over the air! They correlate the MAC/SSID with GPS data from their truck. When google listens for SSIDs and wireless access point MACs from their Street View trucks, they only know where a given SSID/MAC is located. So, there are many different ways that Google can find out where you’re at and most of them are the result of you and I telling Google – piece by piece perhaps – exactly that. How much can they or should they be allowed to correlate? All of that data? We didn’t even realize they would come up with this when we gave them all this information and they just put two and two together. This is all part of what I think is a very interesting and important discussion about just how much of all of this data that large entities like Google, the government and others collect as simply as a byproduct of doing what we ask of them. I believe that most of this stuff you probably can sort of turn off – but not all of it. When I’m doing searches, I’m getting searches that are relevant to my location. When I’m using Google Maps, it’s relevant to where I’m at. I actually find it very useful in many cases to let Google know exactly where I’m at because what it gives me in return for that information is more accurate information that I request of it. While I’ve discussed some fairly obvious “leaks” in the form of WiFi and cell phone data above, there are probably many more signals and data sources that Google pays attention to.Īnd I know that in my case, I’m OK with that. Google has been shown to be a master of pulling together all sorts of disparate pieces of data to come up with a really good picture of exactly where you are. It’s very interesting the number of pieces of data that we leak out when we use various services. Google then has all of the pieces of the puzzle that says he’s probably at that IP address, and that IP address probably terminates at this GPS location, so that’s probably where he is. So all of a sudden, Google has this information from my phone that says this is where the phone is, this is the hotspot where it’s connected, this is the IP address, etc. Well, what do most mobile phones have? They have GPS. Rather than using up my data plan, it’s actually connected to the internet through my internet connection at home. I do, and my mobile phone is actually configured to use my wireless hotspot when it’s connected here at home. Google makes a relatively educated guess that “Gosh, if this machine is wireless, and we know that wireless is at this location, and that location is at this IP address, that could mean that any machine coming in from that IP address is probably at or around that location.” What your phone says about you – literallyĪnother way this can happen is if you happen to have a mobile phone. When people physically move, even if they’ve moved across country, their location is sometimes still shown as their old location because Google is still using the old location of that Wi-Fi hotspot. Google may think that router is in Washington when in fact it’s in Florida until they run another pass.Īnd that’s one piece of data, albeit a really good piece of data that Google has in front of it.Įven if you’re not using a hotspot, it’s possible that Google sees “machine A” coming through that hotspot and that hotspot then appears as “IP address X.” Well, if you’re wired to the same router that the hotspot is connected to then you also show up at that IP address. Now, it get’s a little bit more interesting. That must be where you are.” Where am I today, Google? Even without the SSID I believe they can capture some information that allows them to uniquely identify the hotspot.Ĭouple that with the mapping information that they are creating and they now know that, “If you’re connected through this Wi-Fi hotspot, I know where that Wi-Fi hotspot lives. As I broadcast my SSID, they would know the SSID of those hotspots. While they were doing that, they often actually had a Wi-Fi antenna hooked up so they could see and record at the different Wi-Fi hotspots available as they were driving around.įor example, when they drove by my house, they noticed that there are four Wi-Fi hotspots in this house. I’m actually somewhat surprised at how accurate Google can be at times, but you also have to realize that you give Google a lot more information than just your IP address.Įver seen StreetView on Google Maps? When they set out to create this view of their maps, they drove around all around these neighborhoods and took pictures of what the streets look like so you could see.
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