Re: MAC addresses and privacy...

Le 4 oct. 2010 à 19:02, David Singer a écrit :
> I am effectively broadcasting "It's me, I'm nearby" all the time, to anyone who cares to listen.

The next question is then, "can we opt-out?"

In SkyHook privacy policy [1], there is no information 
to remove your device Ethernet address from their DB. 
The FAQ [2] doesn't give more information either.

In Google Geolocation Privacy Policy [6] doesn't explain 
how to opt out your MAC address.

Note that often the irony for opting out is that you have 
to be identified.

There are many forms of this type [3] for encouraging 
people [4] to reveal their location and improve location 
DBs, I have seen people complaining about their router 
wrongly located after moving. 


As for your own laptop data, that might be the reason.

	And in addition, laptop owners using browsers that 
	take advantage of HTML5 geolocation technologies--
	such as Firefox 3.5--are also contributing to the 
	database when they upload their location to services 
	like Twitter or Foursquare or use Firefox geolocation 
	services. When that data gets sent back to Firefox, 
	it shares the location of all MAC addresses in range 
	with its partner Google for mapping purposes.
	--- [4]

W3C GeoLocation API [5] gives this possibility.



[1]: http://www.skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/privacypolicy.php
[2]: http://skyhookwireless.com/howitworks/faq.php
[3]: https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wifibugs/
[4]: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20009223-265.html
[5]: http://www.w3.org/TR/geolocation-API/#introduction
[6]: http://www.google.com/privacy-lsf.html


-- 
Karl Dubost
Montréal, QC, Canada
http://www.la-grange.net/karl/

Received on Monday, 4 October 2010 23:41:07 UTC