Just when you thought your location on this planet wasn't so hard to see for every business you come into contact with online, you go to Google Maps and find that somehow Google knows exactly where your home is and shows its location with a little blue dot.
It's a little geolocation trick, and no, you don't need to give your consent for it. The only thing they need is to try to connect to your WiFi router and correlate the contact with a location. In an era where smartphones are ubiquitous, this is a very easy task.
WiFi is a solid radio technology that works in all weathers with very little interference. This is in stark contrast to GPS satellite technology which could be affected by cloud cover and other aspects that could interfere with the signal's long journey from space. For this reason (along with the fact that people generally don't move their Wi-Fi hotspots willingly), Wi-Fi can technically be more reliable than GPS for geolocation, especially in urban centers. /P>
Try this experience one day with your smartphone:open Google Maps and allow it to use WiFi to track your location. See how fast this happens. Now try turning off your WiFi antenna. Sometimes the time difference is minute, but if your GPS antenna sucks like mine, using WiFi to determine your location is not only faster, but gives more accurate results in a very short time.
Associating your hotspot's radio signal with a location doesn't necessarily mean people are tracking you or your data unless the connection is encrypted. For added security, just make sure your router requires a password to connect to it wirelessly.
If you have any other tips for the curious, don't hesitate to tell us about them in the comments!
