Websites can get your home address from Google

[BeingAMumIsFun]

Remember all the fuss about Google Vans taking photographs in streets - but later we found out Google were gathering data using our wireless routers.

Well it gets worse

Just by visiting a website - the website can get the unique identifier for your wireless router (MAC address) from your web browser and then ask Google Location Services to provide your location (home address) without your knowledge

There is a feature in your browsers called Location Aware Browsing which can also be used to get your location - but websites must request your permission to do a trace with this - and Google claim they provide your location by using your IP address and "nearby wireless hot spots"

But - when Google were gathering data in your street - they were actually mapping your router MAC Address to your home address - yet they are still trying to claim this was all innocent

Any peodophile can set up a website to attract children and secretly get your address just by your child visiting the site - even if your turn off the "official" location aware service.

This is really really bad - Google had no right to collect this data in the first place and now they are using this to secretly provide websites with your address

Social networking sites can also use this method to get your address - and then compile a list of all your "friends" addresses - (google did actually collect your names and bank details etc if they were available on your computer as well)

The government needs to investigate this again as they are totally unaware google are providing our location based on our router MAC address - rather than our IP address - based on the data they gathered in secret in our streets

(If you want to turn off the official Location Based Browsing which allows websites to track your home address thanks to Google here are the instructions to help you keep your children safe from predators possibly finding out your address

? Firefox ?The ?How To Geek? website gives clear instructions for switching off Firefox Location Aware Browsing
www.howtogeek.com/howto/1672/deactivate-location-aware-browsing-in-firefox-3.5/
? Google Chrome ? use Tools -> Options -> Under the Hood -> Content Settings, and change the radio button on the location section to "Do not allow".

? Internet Explorer ? using the top right tools option (looks like a cog) select Internet Options > Privacy Tab and then tick the following option ?Never allow websites to request your physical location?

If you don't want google giving out your address in secret to websites contact your MP and provide him with this information (here is the website which explains how your address is given out in secret by Google to any website that asks - samy.pl/mapxss/

You know that google are doing this but the government doesnt?

The link to the website which explains how this works is at the bottom of my first post. I'm currently sending this info to MPs and newspapers which is why it is not in the news yet - I am an IT professional who has followed the Google Street View scandal with much interest - and know the background.

Why bring paedophiles into it - because they can use this technology to track you home address just by you or your child visiting a website - and you won't know they have requested your location from Google.

As a mum - this concerned me greatly- and I'm sure lots of Mums will feel the same way as me -which is why I posted the information.

This is not hysteria this is information - I would not advise sticking our heads in the sand but asking our MPs to question Google on this method of sharing our location with websites and checking if it is in fact legal - because the Guardian reported just last week the government is considering whether to bring in the police in regard to the Google Street View scandal - which is not yet over.

Google have admitted to the American government they did use the Street view exercise to map router unique identifiers with home addresses -

Websites are currently using this to get the home address of people who visit their sites from Google.

Google say nothing on their website that indicates they are supplying websites with your home address using the unique address for your home router - data mapped together during Street View

I am an IT professional which is why I understood instantly the dangers of websites using just a browser to then get your home address from google - and google taking advantage of politicians not realising this is what Street View was really all about

I don't wait for newspapers to tell me - if I find out information I share it - because if mothers are informed they can make choices and decisions - as newspapers don't always share the real picture with us - especially not the SUN

If you have a serious point (which tbh, it is hard to tell from your posts) then there are better ways to communicate it than this.

Why post here? Are you posting on all the parenting forums?

Joyful, I found this article which talks about it. A bit.

The government gave away my financial information once too (remember that?).

When the first child is abused or murdered by a peodophile as a result of them gaining the child's home address by the child just visiting a website - will we all be saying

• someone should have warned us this can happen.
• why did the government (or the SUN) not tell us
• it's someone else's fault - the Browser companies knew of the danger and did not warn us or set the default to off (although there is actually no feature to protect us from this Google scam

Does the government not have a responsibility to warn us all websites can gain our home address without our knowledge thanks to the Google "taking pictures scam" which was actually mapping our wireless router to our home address to allow websites to secretly gather this information without our knowledge

How much money is Google making from passing on the home address of every visitor to every website requesting the data without our knowledge?

What security checks do Google make to make sure we gave our permission for billions of websites to get our home address

Financial fraudsters creating websites just to get the addresses of those looking for an investment promising a good return - far more useful than sending spam emails - because we are all aware of this scam now and don't open the emails

It is interesting to see the minute someone warns mums of this technology someone attacks the messenger trying to discredit the facts - is this in the hope other mums don't take this seriously and if so why?

The internet is meant to be an area where we can seek information - and we should be free to do so without websites and google going behind our back and sharing our home address without our knowledge with any website that asks

We should all have the option to switch this secret "feature" off by law (and any other feature that can be used to gain our wireless router MAC Address by people in the street.

And that will allow mums who take the real threats to their children, finances and privacy seriously to ensure they are in control - and allow those who don't care to let Google and websites gather all the information they want

You do seem to be taking quite a hysterical tone to this. If I was a paedophile and wanted to know where there was a house that had a child living in it I can think of many quicker and easier ways than setting up a website and getting the addresses of visitors.

As I said before, you may have a point of some sort, but it is impossible to detect whether or not that is the case from what you have posted.

The SUN and the nation got hysterical when it was found out kids were being targeted and harmed by people using social network sites (without knowing the children's addresses but grooming them for a long time to gain their trust and then getting the children to divulge their address)

We are advised by the government and IT experts to tell all our children - do not divulge your address to any stranger online - so is it hysterical to warn mothers websites can gain your home address without your knowledge ? Every website your child visits could be tracking your child's home address?

Surely this is vital information for every mother to know - when we are telling our kids "don't tell your address" - now they don't have to! If that is not scary - what is?

Is it not better to preempt the possible abuse of this technology , based on passed experience, than to wait until the harm is done as a result of our lack of knowledge, awareness or apathy

Risk assessment is not hysteria - Peodophiles and fraudsters do not think like us - they rely on our ignorance and our trust and the hope we do not take these threats seriously - which is why so many people have been financially scammed using online technologies and children abused by using online technologies with features parents are unaware of or have had no warning of.

Trust me these people watch for every new technology and how they can take advantage of it.

As we are told - health and safety is everyone's responsibility - and we must realise with the hyper speed advances in technology we are now having to take more responsibility for understanding the security settings on our home communications equipment- because the government just don't care - if it makes Google money that is more important to them - which there lack of warning or real investigation proves.

I hate to tell you, but there is a register that ANYONE can access and find out your address. It's called the electoral register. Unless you've checked the option to remove yourself from the public listings, you're on it and anyone can view it, even paedophiles. It's much easier to access than Google's encrypted files too!

Alternatively, they could just follow you home. Don't even need to look anything up that way...

What about all those people with swings, slides, trampolines etc in thier gardens. That could be enough to alert a paedophile to the possibility that there may be a child in the house. Someone should tell the Sun, maybe they could do a campaign

Lots of people have my address
the school
the hospital
my bank
my dentist
ebayers
amazon
the library
the gp's surgery
the chemist
my work
comet and every online shop I've ever done
the list is endless
how do I know there are no paedos working in these places, just biding their time, waiting to pounce on my kids?

Even if the paedophile got your address from google how would he know there were kids in the house.....

Omg! What about children? They show that there are children living in houses!

Keep your kids locked up folks! It's the only way to save them. It's not like they need fresh air and sunlight anyway.

well I wish them ALL the luck in the world finding me!

Every time i check emails on gmail my locations varies from Berkshire to Belfast, via Edinburgh and Glasgow.

I m in Brackley today. ...NOT

Why would websites want physical addresses - surely they are more interested in email addresses to bombard us with junk. This does not make sense..... (to me anyway)

Or are you saying Google is specifically in league with paedophiles.... yeah right.

when I go on google my current location is either Portsmouth or Wigan which is somewhat confusing as I am nowhere near either of those.
Does this mean the nasty bogeyman won't get us?

I'm ok, I use my neighbour's wifi.

we are special and are incognito insancerre

OP, you do sound quite a lot hysterical. Paedophiles can easily find out where children live simply by using their eyes. The only way I can think to avoid that would be to keep everyone aged under 18 in the house at all times and/or insist that all adults wear blindfolds when outdoors.

Also, if you really are an 'internet professional' then you'll know that even before street view, website tracking software served all sorts of identifying information up to site owners, including location. In fact, the programme I use is more accurate than Google which usually tells me I live in Carlisle (nowhere near and I've never even been), and has on other occasions given my location as London, Edinburgh or Paris.

(google did actually collect your names and bank details etc if they were available on your computer as well)

That is scare-mongering bollocks of the highest order. Google might have picked up your bank details only if:
a) You happened to be logging into your bank account at the exact time Google's car was driving past, and
b) Your WiFi router had no security enabled on it whatsoever, and
c) Your bank website allowed you to log in without forcing your web browser to encrypt the data. Which none of them do.

But, of course, as you are an "IT Professional" you would know that. Unless your particular IT skillset doesn't include anything related to information security, data encryption, location services or networking. Out of interest, what is your area of expertise?

Also, would this be a bad time to point out that Google's mapping of WiFi addresses didn't actually give them your postal address? All it told them was that somewhere near a particular spot there was a WiFi router with a particular MAC address. If you are lucky enough to have no neighbours at all within 50m or so then you could make an educated guess as to who owns a particular WiFi router but for the vast majority of people it's a non-issue.

And would this also be a bad time to point out that on my computer at least, that website you claimed to show this secret stuff came up with a message asking me if I want to share location-based information?

This is all a bit C&P woo woo