I’m in shock. One of the reasons people use Firefox is they think it is more secure and better guards their privacy.
At the top of this page is a menu choice that says “Near Me”. It goes to a page that is supposed to be useful on a “location aware” browser – like a cell phone with GPS. The purpose of that page is to “Show all radio stations near me”.
So today I clicked on that link using my old Windows XP that has no self awareness of where it is. To my total shock, Firefox asked me if it was okay to share my location, and when I said Yes, it knew EXACTLY what my location is.
Since my PC has no way to know where it is, how was it able to tell a web site where I am? (using IP addresses typically only gives up names of towns within maybe 5 miles of here – very inaccurate – maybe that is deliberate deception…?)
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/geolocation/
The answer is “Google Told them”.
Microsoft Windows contains an API that allows a program (like Firefox) to “see” the unique MAC IDs of all nearby WIFI access points.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms706749%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
but I’m not connected via Wireless and this PC doesn’t have a wireless card to be able to gather that information. I am using a Wireless Router, but am connected using an Ethernet cable, not WiFi.
So how did Google know where I am? Well, I share the Wireless Router with my iPhone that DOES know where I am, and Google has used that information to peg where this IP address is – at least that’s the only logical explanation I have at the moment. Your iPhone is constantly telling Google (via Apple) where the phone is and what WiFi routers are nearby.
This is starting to feel evil.