Geolocation, a threat to your security!

ShadeDream

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I came along a thread here in BHW where the topic was a program called F.lux. I'm not going to go into the program but one of its features is to use geolocation to provide you with a better service. So I gave it a go and checked out my latitude/longitude by allowing to share my location. To my surprise, it literally gave me my exact location which to be honest is quite scary because if it got exploited it could become a real threat to personal privacy and security. From now on I will be completely disabling this feature in all installed browsers.

Take a look and see how accurate this is in your area:

Code:
http://stereopsis.com/flux/map.html

Or if prefer you can try it on mozilla.org (click on "Give it a try!"):

Code:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/geolocation/

Was your location spot on?

Here's a how to article explaining how to disable this feature completely:

Code:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/disable-fake-location-firefox-internet-explorer-chrome/
 
showed me a different country eventough i'm not using any proxies.

Where are you from? It's probably more accurate in more Internet developed countries, but then again I could be wrong. I'm from the UK.
 
Holy Shit! ... It pin pointed me exactly where my house is on street level.... WTF.
 
its not that accurate
it can trace upto city level only
but it couldn't even find my city
it showed me my service provider's city
btw I am from india
 
It says I'm in Holland (I wish!). I'm connecting from the UK, no proxies.

Get a VPN if your really worried.
 
wow i'm from ives!!! lol im only here in the phils... not accurate.. but fun to see it though.. lol
 
its not that accurate
it can trace upto city level only
but it couldn't even find my city
it showed me my service provider's city
btw I am from india

I am from India too and it showed the exact street my house in on.
 
I'm safe :). It shows a place about 200km away. I guess it's geolocating the IP number from the provider.

D.
 
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