Interesting article shared with me about the way Wi-Fi location services work.
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related : https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1725632?hl=en
How do I opt my access point out of Google Location services?
To opt out, change the SSID (name) of your Wi-Fi access point (your wireless network name) so that it ends with “_nomap.” For example, if your SSID is “12345,” you would change it to “12345_nomap.”
And just like robots.txt, I’m sure they will totally honor this in perpetuity
/s
I recall this being announced a decade or more ago. At the time, I wasn’t so jaded and was more surprised than anything else that it was opt-out rather than opt-in.
Now I’m more annoyed than surprised.
I actually had to do that with my phone’s hotspot name because I used to play Pokemon Go on a tablet which was Wi-Fi tethered to the phone. Before I renamed it to opt out, the game would randomly jump me to wherever the network had last been scanned any time the tablet’s GPS got too flaky.
Microsoft has an additional requirement where “_optout” has to be somewhere in the SSID (not necessarily at the end). This was detailed in a now deleted support post.
So now my SSID has to be myname_nomap_optout_dontscan_ffswhy_fuckoffanddie?
That’s already my SSID, please don’t use it too
“It’s associated with “Location Services” on most devices, meaning that you cannot opt out of your phone reporting the locations of surrounding Wi-Fi devices without turning off your phone’s ability to obtain its location entirely.”
You may usually know where you’re at, but maybe someone else needs to?
I didn’t do shit! I just used those laptops at funerals where the body flops out of the coffin!
Very interesting!
