this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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Technology

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Everyone knows your location. (timsh.org)
submitted 5 hours ago by Cat@ponder.cat to c/technology@lemmy.zip
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TL;DR

After more than couple dozen hours of trying, here are the main takeaways:

  1. I found a couple requests sent by my phone with my precise location + 5 requests that leak my IP address, which can be turned into geolocation using reverse DNS.
  2. Learned a lot about the RTB (real-time bidding) auctions and OpenRTB protocol and was shocked by the amount and types of data sent with the bids to ad exchanges.
  3. Gave up on the idea to buy my location data from a data broker or a tracking service, because I don't have a big enough company to take a trial or $10-50k to buy a huge database with the data of millions of people + me. Well maybe I do, but such expense seems a bit irrational. Turns out that EU-based peoples` data is almost the most expensive.

But still, I know my location data was collected and I know where to buy it!

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[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 1 points 1 hour ago

Would using a VPN even help?

Wouldn't that just slow you down, cause some websites to not work, and leave your device showing up as a giant black hole / empty spot without traffic where "expected" traffic should be?

Although at this point I'm wondering if I should be nervous about website traffic showing up to Lemmy on a work computer, due to mismatching priorities of it (freedom) vs. the new USA federal administration (which nearly every company - including and most notably to me Proton, a provider of free VPN access - seems to be sucking up to).

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Your IP address means nothing honestly. It is only a approximate location based on a IP records.

[–] Enkers@sh.itjust.works 8 points 4 hours ago

Absolutely wild. I knew things were bad, but wow...

Somehow it's simultaneously shocking and making me think "Yeah, that sounds about right."