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Firefox Add-On To Track Your Location Via Wi-Fi

Posted by timothy on from the location-aware dept.

Barence writes "Mozilla Labs has unveiled a new Add-on that allows Firefox to pinpoint your location based on Wi-Fi signals. The feature, called Geode, is a prototype for the location-tracking technology that will be built into the forthcoming Firefox 3.1. Geode is designed to work with websites that rely on knowing your location, such as mapping and geotagging services. The prospect of Firefox having the ability to track your location raises obvious privacy fears. Mozilla insists users will remain in complete control. 'With Geode, when a website requests your location a notification bar will ask how much information you want to give that site: your exact location, your neighbourhood, your city, or nothing at all,' the Mozilla Labs blog claims."

5 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Why Not... by jpatters · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why not let it give the user the option of telling the web site some arbitrary location?

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  2. ... It's an addon, not a cookie. by plasmacutter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The addon has to be manually installed.

    It's not a piece of malware, it's not surreptitiously installed by remote servers. It's strictly voluntary.

    The only privacy concerns which arise from this are if people are not careful enough with the addon to disable it.

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    1. Re:... It's an addon, not a cookie. by truthsearch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except the summary states "the location-tracking technology... will be built into the forthcoming Firefox 3.1."

      I'd much rather this remain a separately downloadable add-on.

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  3. Forgot a function by CaptainPatent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Geode is designed to work with websites that rely on knowing your location, such as mapping, geotagging services, and location-based advertising.

    Hey, they've got to be making money off of it somehow.

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    Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
  4. How does wifi "pinpoint your location"? by FourthAge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Does this require each hotspot owner to register the location of his/her hotspot, so that a database can be queried to find the location?

    e.g. "I can see access points with MAC addresses 00:60:08:57:3C:D2 and 00:E0:18:77:D6:40 so I know I'm at 37 23.516 -122 02.625.."

    How many hotspot owners can be bothered to register their correct location? And re-register it if their IP address changes? How many even change their password?

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