nanog mailing list archives
Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups
From: Jeroen Massar <jeroen () massar ch>
Date: Wed, 08 Apr 2015 13:56:20 +0200
On 2015-04-08 13:31, Max Tulyev wrote:
We operate IPv6 tunnel broker tb.netassist.ua, so /48 from our /32 is spread all around the world. Google change geo of our WHOLE /32 from time to time to another cute random place ;) One time Google decided we are in IRAN and block a lot of content as "not available in your country" o_O Unfortunately, there is no "magic button" to fix it, as well as no human contact in Google to discuss it. I'm still trying to find a good solution, but not found it.
Do check: http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-google-self-published-geofeeds-02 That draft also contains folks to kick who wrote it. Or more details on how SixXS uses that: https://www.sixxs.net/faq/misc/?faq=geolocation It is a hard problem unfortunately as there are a variety of reasons why content owners perform Geolocation (language detection / Content restrictions etc). For most organizations "Geolocation" all comes down to "IP Protection" (Stupid Property aka "Content", not Internet Protocol). Hence, if you have a /32 IPv6 assigned to the Ukraine (which is already considered a shady country by most unfortunately for you) and then start offering VPN services, you'll likely just end up blocked in most of these "IP protecting networks" as folks just think you are trying to circumvent their great and awesome IP Protection strategies. That stated, properly providing a WHOIS entry for each prefix (inetnum/inet6num) is a good idea as that kind of indicates that that prefix is fixed in that location and not just moving around. As for Google, well, they have the method described above, but as they are primarily a HTTP company, they could just detect Language setting by the HTTP Accept-Language header. For YouTube etc they are in the same boat as everybody else: IP Protection. (property not network). In the end, having a prefix per country/region is the correct way to go. Do make sure though that you do not show any foreign address in the whois data (even if that is the correct entity that the prefix is registered under) otherwise that whole prefix will suddenly be blocked by for instance Netflix as "it is foreign"... Though Netflix always considers VPNs as a bad thing, ignoring the fact that for some folks that is the only real way to get a reasonable Internet experience. That all said: Restricting content based on location is complete and utter nonsense in 2015. The world is global, people want to pay for content and the content owners just don't allow people to pay for it. We all know what the end result of that is ;) Greets, Jeroen
Current thread:
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups, (continued)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Arzhel Younsi (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Aaron C. de Bruyn (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Blair Trosper (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Aaron C. de Bruyn (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Blair Trosper (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Rob Seastrom (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups shawn wilson (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Rob Seastrom (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Josh Reynolds (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Jeroen Massar (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Tim Franklin (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Colin Johnston (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Max Tulyev (Apr 08)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups John R. Levine (Apr 07)
- Re: Fixing Google geolocation screwups Christopher Morrow (Apr 07)