{"id":1787032,"date":"2019-01-21T11:59:59","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T16:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1787032"},"modified":"2019-01-21T11:59:59","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T16:59:59","slug":"another-geolocation-horror-show-this-time-from-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/01\/another-geolocation-horror-show-this-time-from-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Geolocation Horror Show, This Time from South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the farm in Kansas<\/a> that, thanks to an error in MaxMind<\/a>\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 visits from the police because IP addresses that were from Pretoria, but whose precise location couldn’t be resolved any further, defaulted to their front yard. Kashmir Hill, who covered<\/a> the Kansas incident, has the story for Gizmodo<\/em><\/a>. It’s a fascinating long read that burrows into the sources of geolocation data and the problematic ways in which it’s used.<\/p>\n

In this case the problem was traced to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which assigned the lat\/long coordinates for Pretoria to this family’s front yard. The end result: one home becomes the location for one million IP addresses in Pretoria. (The NGA has since changed it.)<\/p>\n

The problem here is twofold. First, a failure to account for accuracy radius: a city or a country is represented by a single, precise point at its centre. That’s a real problem when the data point being geotagged can’t be more specific than “Pretoria” or “United States,” because the geotagging is made artificially precise: it’s not “somewhere in Pretoria,” it’s this specific address<\/em>. Second is the misuse of IP location data. It’s one thing to use a web visitor’s IP address to serve them local ads or to enforce geographical restrictions on content, quite another to use that data for official or vigilante justice. The data, Hill points out, isn’t good enough for that. [MetaFilter<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Previously: A Geolocation Glitch Creates a \u2018Technological Horror Story\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… 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-1787032","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":1786078,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/pentagon-tells-personnel-to-turn-off-geolocation-in-sensitive-areas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787032,"position":0},"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":1487,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/04\/a-geolocation-glitch-creates-a-technological-horror-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787032,"position":1},"title":"A Geolocation Glitch Creates a ‘Technological Horror Story’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 April 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"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 country. In the case of the United States, it turned out\u00a0to be Joyce Taylor's\u00a0farm in\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":1787032,"position":2},"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":1789833,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/12\/apple-and-google-ban-location-tracking-sdk-from-apps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787032,"position":3},"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":1787032,"position":4},"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":[]},{"id":1786138,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/ap-google-tracks-your-location-even-when-you-tell-it-not-to\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787032,"position":5},"title":"AP: Google Tracks Your Location, Even When You Tell It Not To","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"\"Google wants to know where you go so badly that it records your movements even when you explicitly tell it not to,\" the Associated Press reports. Their exclusive investigation discovered that \"many Google services on Android devices and iPhones store your location data even if you\u2019ve used a privacy setting\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\/1787032","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=1787032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787034,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787032\/revisions\/1787034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}