triangulation

Ipad 1, 2, or 3? Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi plus Cellular model? The GPS feature is part of the cellular chipset. If you have a Wi-fi only model, there's no GPS.

See the Location section at: Wi-Fi only: Wi-Fi Plus Cellular model: Wi-Fi Wi-Fi Digital compass Digital compass Assisted GPS and GLONASS Cellular

It's iPad 1 wifi only. I notice a circle centered on a marker, usually off by more than 100 feet. Perhaps it can find location of address of owner ? With some very weak signals at camp, it still was in the vicinity. I need more time using it at different locations to see how it acts.

Greg

I just realized there is also a compass function.

Greg

No GPS in the first version.

Apple uses Skyhook Wireless to do their location services via Wi-Fi: Accuracy is largely based on their database. The way I *THINK* it works is that when a device with both Wi-Fi and GPS enabled visits a coffee shop, it sends both the Wi-Fi MAC address and the GPS location to Skyhook Wireless. Skyhook then "corrects" the Wi-Fi location to more accurately agree with the GPS location. Eventually, you get a fairly accurate location by MAC address.

Disclaimer: This is a guess, this is only a guess, etc...

Well yeah, but not limited to coffee shops.;-) You are spying for Apple all the time. Well unless you use an Android phone. Then you are spying for Google. The damn google street view cars also collect MAC addresses. That is why they were sniffing wifi. The payload theft probably was accidental, though I have no problem with them being fined.

The Google database is such that you need to be sniffing two wifi devices at the same time in order to get the location. It used to be one, but somebody realized such a database was kind of intrusive since you could harvest MACs by one means, then find the location from the database. The idea is if you have sniffed two macs at the same time, then you probably ARE at the location in the database, so in theory it is not an invasion of privacy, well at least by Google's loose standards. [Of course, Google standards are higher than the NSA.]

THe ipod touch uses the same scheme.

They have every access point in my office building accurately located to within about 30ft.

Hot off depresses... You can now allegedly opt out of the scheme: by adding "_NOMAP" to the tail end of your SSID. Note the unfinished web page and useless detail, the mark of a rush job. I wonder what went wrong this time?

However, if do want to be located, or want to ruin someones day by adding them to Google Maps, Google can help:

Skyhook was using their version of Google Vans as well. I don't know if they still are. But in the GOod Old Days they'd grab the wifi SSIDs and mark the GPS locations, and u/l it to their data base.

They also have manual customer input. If you activate "loki" and it sees unidentified SSIDs, it asks you for your location. WHich then gets into the data base...

ah:

There were some legal battles..

The free map isn't particularly detailed. I suspect it just shows the Central Office. They give you the name of the Central Office, which you can then google to get a location from a number of vendors.

My cellphone was with the wrong vendor. I'm not particularly surprised Verizon would sell such information.

I'm sure there are similar nasty companies out there, and you need to remove yourself one by one.

cidlookup.com links back to tnid.us callowl.com links back to tnid.us

mobile.am never seems to finish. Well unless it is trying to download a virus. It just spins and spins.

This one claims to have found my name and address, but doesn't show it:

Well I give tnid.us some credit. They at least have the decency to let you opt out.

Ya know, in the EU, they are working on this "right to be forgotten". Given how we finance elections in the US, that will never happen.