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Uspring

Tue May 13 2014, 12:39PM

Registered Member #3988 Joined: Thu Jul 07 2011, 03:25PM
Location:
Posts: 711

Last weekend my son visited me. With his mobile phone he was looking for the next train going back home. The train schedule app showed his current location, which was my exact home address. He assured me, that his GPS was off.
The mobile phone was connected to the internet by my home wifi. So I asked him to connect through his mobile phone provider. The current address then changed to a location in my home town, maybe a mile from my address.

Does anybody know how my wifi discloses my address?

My home IP number changes at daily intervals and at the time this happened no other computer in my household was connected to the internet. Also nobody is using gmail here or ever has entered my address except for orders to online shops.

HV Enthusiast

Tue May 13 2014, 12:55PM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

I'm not sure, buts it scary.
I assume that since you have an older son, you are probably close to age to myself and remember the days before all the internet, gps, and so forth . . .

I feel bad for kids today. They will never know what true privacy is.

Kind of scary.

Mads Barnkob

Tue May 13 2014, 01:19PM

Registered Member #1403 Joined: Tue Mar 18 2008, 06:05PM
Location: Denmark, Odense C
Posts: 1968

The IP is not enough to track to the exact adress, unless there is some behind the scenes where your ISP send extra header information about you, but that is very very unlikely.

You could try to visit:

and here it is explained:

It could however be mobile phone antenna triangulation to get the position. I have a taxi app that uses this method, which was a design decision along with the few, big and colorful button, it was designed to drunk people that just wants to get home and is no longer capable of activating gps etc :)

Ash Small

Tue May 13 2014, 05:52PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

I expect it's antenna triangulation.

A friend of mine once used a website to track his sister's husband's phone location when he was suspected of 'playing away from home'. It gave him the exact address, his sister's husban's car was outside and he was in the shower, if I remember the details correctly.

Anyone can track any phone using the correct software.

EDIT: After all, microwave frequencies were pretty much 'invented' for RADAR applications.

Uspring

Tue May 13 2014, 08:58PM

Registered Member #3988 Joined: Thu Jul 07 2011, 03:25PM
Location:
Posts: 711

Thank you for your suggestions.
The correct address was only displayed, when the phone was connected to my home wifi. The antenna triangulation through the mobile phone provider was rather inaccurate, i.e. a mile away. My wifi probably has a unique id, which can be obtained by the phone. The question is, how that can be related to my home address.

Ash Small

Tue May 13 2014, 09:19PM

Registered Member #3414 Joined: Sun Nov 14 2010, 05:05PM
Location: UK
Posts: 4245

Does your router connect through the phone network? Does the 'system' identify your phone number?

Artlav

Wed May 14 2014, 05:47AM

Registered Member #8120 Joined: Thu Nov 15 2012, 06:06PM
Location: Moscow, Russia
Posts: 94

There are many positioning solutions, none of which are malevolent or something like that.

GSM tower triangulation, network location databases, all sorts of cookies, etc.
There are articles on the internet that explain how this work, but i can't find one in english off the top of my head.

I think google maps have a position api as well, that you can try to play with.

Bjørn

Wed May 14 2014, 07:26AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

When google and others drive around they store all the WIFI data and signal power so they know where exactly each wifi router is. So when you connect to a WIFI router with a device that is running the right software it just asks the server where the router is located.

If you want to avoid this you probably have to change the SSID and MAC address and other details of the router at regular intervals.

Uspring

Wed May 14 2014, 10:03AM

Registered Member #3988 Joined: Thu Jul 07 2011, 03:25PM
Location:
Posts: 711

@Ash:

Does your router connect through the phone network? Does the 'system' identify your phone number?

Yes, the router is connected to the phone network. My ISP knows my address and my IP number, so he could provide this information. Local law here requires a court order to the ISP to supply my address from my IP.
I'm just wondering about a legislative hurdle like this, if a simple app can do the same.

@Bjorn:
I'm not sure, whether google was near my place. I live in a suburbian area and there is no street view for the road I live at. IRC the acquisition of wifi ids by google was forbidden here. Nevertheless the SSID or MAC address are on top of my suspicion list.

Chip Fixes

Wed May 14 2014, 08:17PM

Registered Member #3781 Joined: Sat Mar 26 2011, 02:25AM
Location:
Posts: 701

Does this article help shed some light? Apparently Google no longer uses its StreetView cars to track location information from WiFi.

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