Geolocation software

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia.
Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.(December 2007)

In computing, geolocation software is used to deduce the geolocation (geographic location) of another party. For example, on the Internet, one geolocation approach would be to identify the subject party's IP address, then determine what country, organization, and/or user the IP address has been assigned to, and finally, guess that party's location. Other methods include examination of a MAC address, image metadata, or credit card information.

Contents

[edit] Data collection

Data is collected from web sites that ask visitors to supply a geographic location. For example, a weather web site might ask visitors for a city name, to find their local forecast. The IP address of the requestor is recorded along with the geographic information, creating a single data point in a very large map.

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

Many companies sell geolocation databases. The databases are swapping listings to filter out anomalies. The major geolocation companies claim varying degrees of accuracy. Most are much more accurate on the country level than on the city/state level.

[edit] Criticism

Critics[who?] note that geolocation software is inherently inaccurate (2002), easily manipulated, and conflicts with the global nature of the Internet.[citation needed]

[edit] Privacy

A distinction can be made between co-operative and oppositional geolocation. In some cases, it is in the interest of users to be accurately located, for example, so that they can be offered information relevant to their location. In other cases, users prefer to not disclose their location for privacy or other reasons.

Technical measures for ensuring anonymity, such as proxy servers, can be used to circumvent restrictions imposed by geolocation software. Some sites detect the use of proxies and anonymizers, and may either block service or provide non-localized content in response.[1]

[edit] Applications

[edit] Criminal investigations

Banks, software vendors and other online enterprises are now subject to strict new “Know your customer” laws imposed by the USA PATRIOT Act, the Bank Secrecy Act, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and other regulatory entities in the US and Europe. These laws are designed to prevent money laundering, trafficking with terrorist organizations and trading with banned nations. By identifying where online visitors really are, geolocation can protect banks from participating in the transfer of funds for illicit purposes.

[edit] Fraud detection

Online retailers and payment processors use geolocation to detect possible credit card fraud by comparing the user’s location to the billing address on the account or the shipping address provided. A mismatch – an order placed from Indonesia on an account number from Indiana, for example – is a strong indicator of potential fraud. Banks can prevent “phishing” attacks, money laundering and other security breaches by determining the user’s location as part of the authentication process.

Government, law enforcement and corporate security teams use geolocation as an investigatory tool, tracking the Internet routes of online attackers to find the perpetrators and prevent future attacks from the same location.

[edit] Censorship

It has been suggested that legislation should mandate the use of geolocation software, for example for companies distributing pornography considered obscene in some jurisdictions or to enforce international trade agreements. (See geolocation).

[edit] Geo marketing

See Geo (marketing)

[edit] Regional licensing

Internet movie vendors and online broadcasters who serve live streaming video of sporting events are permitted to service viewers only in their licensed territories. By geolocating viewers, they can be certain of obeying licensing regulations. Online casinos must also know where their customers are or risk violating national laws against Internet gambling.

Jim Ramo, chief executive of movie distributor Movielink, said studios were aware of the shortcomings going in and have grown more confident now that the system has been shown to work.[2]

[edit] Target content

Web sites can show different content based on your location. For example, going to google.com may redirect you to your local (translated) google site like Google Belgium, or it may show a 'Go to Google Belgium'. In various European countries, Google or Yahoo! do not display results which would show negationist websites (see LICRA v. Yahoo!).

[edit] Mobile phones

Geolocation is not only used on the Internet. Some mobile telephone service providers offer services that accurately determine the location of a mobile phone on their network and provide location-based services.

[edit] Spam fighting

Though controversial, some ISP's use geolocation software to help with the prevention of email and website spam. Many countries are known to have loose spam laws, and the use of geolocation software allows ISPs to identify or flag messages and posts from these countries.

[edit] History

Geolocation technology has been under development only since 1999, and the first patents were granted in 2004. The technology is already widely used in multiple industries, including e-retail, banking, media, online gaming and law enforcement, for preventing online fraud, complying with regulations, managing digital rights and serving targeted marketing content and pricing.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

 The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.
  1. ^ RealNetworks detects proxies and anonymizers; Google serves non-localized content if location is in doubt: [1]
  2. ^ Associated Press (2004-07-12). Geolocation: Don't Fence Web In. Wired News. Retrieved on 2006-09-28.

[edit] External links

Languages