internet probe can track you within 690 m

Mon Apr 11 20:25:47 UTC 2011

   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.

   Scott
   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