Re: internet probe can track you within 690 m

["Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick () ianai net>]

On Apr 11, 2011, at 4:25 PM, Scott Morris wrote:

>   Aren't they already confused enough when any time I use my EVDO or 3G
>   Tether that someone believes I've been magically transported to New
>   Jersey or wherever the handoff is?   ;)
>   Understand the logic behind it, but you probably statistically have
>   just as much chance of being correct as you do incorrect.

Just like the old days with AOL & their proxies.  There are not as many 3G or proxy / VPN users are there are standard 
users.  Therefore, it works - mostly.  (Or can work, I have no idea if the particular company / tool under discussion 
is actually useful.)

Data is data.  It can be misinterpreted, but it is still data.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick


>   On 4/11/11 4:10 PM, Jeroen van Aart wrote:
>
>     [1]http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20336-internet-probe-can-tr
>     ack-you-down-to-within-690-metres.html
>     "The new method zooms in through three stages to locate a target
>     computer. The first stage measures the time it takes to send a data
>     packet to the target and converts it into a distance - a common
>     geolocation technique that narrows the target's possible location to
>     a radius of around 200 kilometres.
>     (..)
>     Finally, they repeat the landmark search at this more fine-grained
>     level: comparing delay times once more, they establish which
>     landmark server is closest to the target. The result can never be
>     entirely accurate, but it's much better than trying to determine a
>     location by converting the initial delay into a distance or the next
>     best IP-based method. On average their method gets to within 690
>     metres of the target and can be as close as 100 metres - good enough
>     to identify the target computer's location to within a few streets."
>     It seems to me to be a rather flaky way of finding out your
>     estimated location. But I guess it could be helpful when the
>     objective is just to create some global database of demographics for
>     marketing and privacy invasion purposes, where specifics of an
>     individual's exact location don't really matter.
>     Besides the latter can always be subpoenaed. ;-)
>     One more reason to use VPN and other such techniques to hide your
>     location.
>     Greetings,
>     Jeroen
>
> References
>
>   1. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20336-internet-probe-can-track-you-down-to-within-690-metres.html