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How would a website find your exact location?

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    How would a website find your exact location?

    You know those ads on online news pages like "XXX left stunned by this new laser eye surgery" where XXX is your approximate location that is easily obtained from the IP address?

    One on The Independent today has XXX as my small village. Where did they get that from? I have not signed up for The Independent or any such ads and Bing Maps centres on the usual large town about ten miles away.

    Odd. Any Ideas? Cheas.
    bloggoth

    If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
    John Wayne (My guru, not to be confused with my beloved prophet Jeremy Clarkson)

    #2
    Your IP address can be tagged with location depending on the ISP.

    Normally just for fixed line connections, mobiles etc all seem to route down to the South of England no matter where you are.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by xoggoth View Post
      You know those ads on online news pages like "XXX left stunned by this new laser eye surgery" where XXX is your approximate location that is easily obtained from the IP address?

      One on The Independent today has XXX as my small village. Where did they get that from? I have not signed up for The Independent or any such ads and Bing Maps centres on the usual large town about ten miles away.

      Odd. Any Ideas? Cheas.
      The Ad companies also source info from social media and other sources and pipe it through Google ad's which has access to your search history etc. They use that to work out what you might be interested in and where you probably are.
      "Being nice costs nothing and sometimes gets you extra bacon" - Pondlife.

      Comment


        #4
        How would a website find your exact location?

        Anytime you google anything it's stored, analysed and monetised. Google make a mint out of you and hope to make even more when they link your card transactions to your internet viewing.

        Google Tag Manager is where it's at, baby...
        "I can put any old tat in my sig, put quotes around it and attribute to someone of whom I've heard, to make it sound true."
        - Voltaire/Benjamin Franklin/Anne Frank...

        Comment


          #5
          Cheers all. Thought I had all the Google spy stuff turned off but will check. Didn't know that location tag thing.
          bloggoth

          If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
          John Wayne (My guru, not to be confused with my beloved prophet Jeremy Clarkson)

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by xoggoth View Post
            Cheers all. Thought I had all the Google spy stuff turned off but will check. Didn't know that location tag thing.
            If it's a mobile phone, could it be some app on the phone is sending to Google the names of Wifi nodes advertising their presence in the vicinity?

            ISTR Google were in the dog house a few years ago for recording these as part of their Google Street Map survey.

            Of course these names constantly change, and will have changed considerably since that survey, but presumably if they monitor a constant real-time stream of these, from millions of phones, then by a mixture of network analysis and geo thingummygigging (?) presumably they can generally narrow down the location of each fairly accurately, and hence the location of your phone.
            Work in the public sector? Read the IR35 FAQ here

            Comment


              #7
              it's annoying that around my town there are always MILFs being advertised as needing a good seeing to.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by ChimpMaster View Post
                it's annoying that around my town there are always MILFs being advertised as needing a good seeing to.
                Yeah within a mile and a half apparently.

                Chubbers available 3.7 miles away....

                Have you ever clicked just to see what happens?

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by original PM View Post
                  Yeah within a mile and a half apparently.

                  Chubbers available 3.7 miles away....

                  Have you ever clicked just to see what happens?
                  Mrs BP sends me down the pub for a couple of hours so she can do wash the dishes in quiet....

                  Comment


                    #10
                    it's annoying that around my town there are always MILFs being advertised as needing a good seeing to
                    I assume you look at xnxx or similar. Same here, always just a mile or two away feeling horny. Not tried clicking, obviously phoney.
                    bloggoth

                    If everything isn't black and white, I say, 'Why the hell not?'
                    John Wayne (My guru, not to be confused with my beloved prophet Jeremy Clarkson)

                    Comment

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