Geolocation Enables Internet Borders

JimRay writes: "The Washington Post's Tech site is running an interesting piece on geolocation technology and its increased use on the net. The article explains the technology as being able to locate an Internet user in the world, at least to their mother country, and then grant access based on their location. They note how television broadcasters are interested in this kind of technology to prohibit the loss of distribution rights to things like the Olympics."

Comments

Pinpointing location?

[blacksmith]

...some technologies can pinpoint one's location.

That's a pretty big pin. Pinpoint an IP address maybe, but that doesn't tell you much about where someone really is. Ignoring the effect of proxies, some dynamic address allocation schemes can cover huge areas.

I think the more "Big Brother" aspects of this can probably be ignored for a while - until ISPs start getting more involved with content providers at least.

Global Community?

[Sobrique]

No, no no.
The Internet is (IMHO) a global community. Identifying and restricting people by ip address is, to my mind, contrary to the whole ethos.
I dislike the thought that people will be allowed to track who and where I am. I also dislike the thought that it'll be possible to prevent/deny access to your site based on where in the world the person who's trying to access it is located.1
Then again, I suppose there's always enough anonymous proxy servers out their to circumvent this.

Re:Against Everything Internet Stands for

[Lysander Luddite]

Its for law enforcement. If you can know what country a user is in you can apply local laws to that user. This is a boon for things like unauthorized computer entry, IP laws, jurisdictional determination, as well as determining what rates to charge somebody.

Really... if The Man wants such a thing he'll get it one way or the other. Passing laws is cheaper, but determining where somebody is, is the first step to enforcing the laws on the book.

It won't be long before the SSSCA is amended to add anonymity and location scrambling to its list of prohibited activities.

I think this story was run a year or so back too.

Good and bad?

[rmadmin]

I could see this being abused at a high level. Someone could definately take this technology, and make it into a form of tool. For instance:

Good:
Company had 4 divisions: US, UK, China, Brazil. The company sets their website up to detect browser's location, and directs them to the site for the proper division.

Bad: Company has banner adds on their site. When someone from Las Vegas goes to their site, they advertise hookers and casinos, (since they are legal in vegas, lets entise the natives to go boost the economy!). Someone sitting in California goes to the same site and gets a banner for suntan lotion. Wow.. we just geographically marketed our products!

Btw.. "visitors try to enter UKbetting.com"

I went there, and tried to sign up. The program they use to detect your location seems to take forever (over 5 minutes)! Probably because I'm in the US =P

Doesn't Necessarily Work as Promised...

[zoward]

The story indicated that UKbetting.com would be off-limits to anyone from the United States, but I was just able to access it successfully from the US, using either:

http://www.ukbetting.com

or

http://www.ukbetting.co.uk.