{"id":1487,"date":"2016-04-11T14:21:49","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2016-04-11T14:21:49","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:21:49","slug":"a-geolocation-glitch-creates-a-technological-horror-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/04\/a-geolocation-glitch-creates-a-technological-horror-story\/","title":{"rendered":"A Geolocation Glitch Creates a ‘Technological Horror Story’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not every geographic database uses Null Island<\/a>. When MaxMind<\/a>\u2019s geolocation database, which matches IP addresses to physical locations, can only identify an IP address’s country, it uses a\u00a0default location roughly at the centre of that country. In the case of the United States, it turned out\u00a0to be Joyce Taylor’s\u00a0farm in Potwin, Kansas.\u00a0Fusion<\/em>\u2019s Kashmir Hill has the horror story that has ensued<\/a>: MaxMind’s database is used by thousands of online services, whose users mistook a default location with a precise address.<\/p>\n

For the last decade, Taylor and her renters have been visited by all kinds of mysterious trouble. They\u2019ve been accused of being identity thieves, spammers, scammers and fraudsters. They\u2019ve gotten visited by FBI agents, federal marshals, IRS collectors, ambulances searching for suicidal veterans, and police officers searching for runaway children. They\u2019ve found people scrounging around in their barn. The renters have been doxxed, their names and addresses posted on the internet by vigilantes. Once, someone left a broken toilet in the driveway as a strange, indefinite threat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Hill’s article points out, Taylor is far from the only one to be hit by this problem. MaxMind is updating its database to correct this and one other case by moving the default location to\u00a0a body of water. (I can’t help but think that we will soon start hearing\u00a0stories about people driving\u00a0into the lake\u00a0as a result of this change.)\u00a0There’s no such thing as a set of coordinates\u00a0that can’t be represented precisely. What’s the solution?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not every geographic database uses Null Island. When MaxMind\u2019s geolocation database, which matches IP addresses to physical locations, can only identify an IP address’s country, it uses a\u00a0default location roughly at the centre of that… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[420],"class_list":["post-1487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-map-errors","tag-geolocation","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1787032,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/01\/another-geolocation-horror-show-this-time-from-south-africa\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":0},"title":"Another Geolocation Horror Show, This Time from South Africa","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 January 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"Remember the farm in Kansas that, thanks to an error in MaxMind\u2019s geolocation database, became the default physical location for any IP address in the United States that couldn't be resolved? It's happened again, this time to a couple in Pretoria, South Africa, who received online and physical threats and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Map Errors"","block_context":{"text":"Map Errors","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/map-errors\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786825,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/new-york-times-how-location-data-is-gathered-shared-and-sold\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":1},"title":"New York Times: How Location Data Is Gathered, Shared and Sold","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 December 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"A long expos\u00e9 from the New York Times explores just how much location data is collected from mobile apps, to the point where the identity of an anonymous user can be reconstructed from where they've been. The key point: whatever purpose the app is collecting your location for (for example,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786078,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/pentagon-tells-personnel-to-turn-off-geolocation-in-sensitive-areas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":2},"title":"Pentagon Tells Personnel to Turn Off Geolocation in Sensitive Areas","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"7 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"In the wake of reports that fitness apps' user data was exposed and could be used to identify military and intelligence personnel in sensitive areas like bases and deployment zones, U.S. military and defense employees can no longer use geolocation features in devices and apps in operational areas.\u00a0The new policy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "GPS"","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791196,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/06\/what3words-hasnt-had-the-greatest-couple-of-months-a-roundup\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":3},"title":"What3Words Hasn\u2019t Had the Greatest Couple of Months: A Roundup","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 June 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"The proprietary geocoding system What3words, which assigns a three-word mapcode to each three-square-metre point on the planet, has been getting some grief lately. It\u2019s always been somewhat controversial because it\u2019s a closed system, and because of the steps What3words has taken to protect its proprietary database and algorithms: it\u2019s issued\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web Mapping"","block_context":{"text":"Web Mapping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/web-mapping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789833,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/12\/apple-and-google-ban-location-tracking-sdk-from-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":4},"title":"Apple and Google Ban Location Tracking SDK from Apps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 December 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Last month it was reported that the X-Mode software development kit, used by many apps, was collecting and selling user location data, with the U.S. military among the buyers. In response, earlier this month both Apple and Google gave developers a deadline to remove X-Mode from their apps: seven days\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789702,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/11\/how-the-u-s-military-buys-location-data-from-mobile-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1487,"position":5},"title":"How the U.S. Military Buys Location Data from Mobile Apps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 November 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Motherboard reported last week that the U.S. military was buying location data that originated, among other places, from Muslim prayer and dating apps. The Motherboard expos\u00e9 details how it happened: how the location data supply chain works, and, for example, how data brokers pay app developers to incorporate their frameworks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mobile"","block_context":{"text":"Mobile","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/mobile\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}