GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences

Ken Chase math at sizone.org
Mon Apr 11 17:22:43 UTC 2016


Well they DO know the IP location is within the USA - many apps use the GeoIP
API and require a lat/long returned, and some need one that lands within a
country border (thus my suggestion of middle of a remote wilderness park - let
the cops search some desolate remote desert in nevada amirite?)

MaxMind might not want the quality hit for a 0,0 answer (as funny as that would be).

(my 'middle of a lake in the middle of the country' retains some of that mischievous
win however.)

/kc


On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 01:14:37PM -0400, Josh Luthman said:
  >Or 0,0, send the FBI to Africa on a boating trip.  that would probably be
  >easier than "unknown" or "null".
  >
  >
  >Josh Luthman
  >Office: 937-552-2340
  >Direct: 937-552-2343
  >1100 Wayne St
  >Suite 1337
  >Troy, OH 45373
  >
  >On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 1:11 PM, Hugo Slabbert <hugo at slabnet.com> wrote:
  >
  >>
  >> On Mon 2016-Apr-11 13:02:14 -0400, Ken Chase <math at sizone.org> wrote:
  >>
  >> TL;DR: GeoIP put unknown IP location mappings to the 'center of the
  >>> country'
  >>> but then rounded off the lat long so it points at this farm.
  >>>
  >>> Cant believe law enforcement is using this kind of info to execute
  >>> searches.
  >>> Wouldnt that undermine the credibility of any evidence brought up in
  >>> trials
  >>> for any geoip locates?
  >>>
  >>> Seems to me locating unknowns somewhere in the middle of a big lake or
  >>> park in
  >>> the center of the country might be a better idea.
  >>>
  >>
  >> ...how about actually marking an unknown as...oh, I dunno: "unknown"?  Is
  >> there no analogue in the GeoIP lookups for a 404?
  >>
  >>
  >>> /kc
  >>>
  >>
  >> --
  >> Hugo Slabbert       | email, xmpp/jabber: hugo at slabnet.com
  >> pgp key: B178313E   | also on Signal
  >>
  >>
  >>
  >>> On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 11:55:11AM -0500, Chris Boyd said:
  >>>  >
  >>>  >Interesting article.
  >>>  >
  >>>  >http://fusion.net/story/287592/internet-mapping-glitch-kansas-farm/
  >>>  >
  >>>  >An hour???s drive from Wichita, Kansas, in a little town called Potwin,
  >>>  >there is a 360-acre piece of land with a very big problem.
  >>>  >
  >>>  >The plot has been owned by the Vogelman family for more than a hundred
  >>>  >years, though the current owner, Joyce Taylor n??e Vogelman, 82, now
  >>>  >rents it out. The acreage is quiet and remote: a farm, a pasture, an old
  >>>  >orchard, two barns, some hog shacks and a two-story house. It???s the
  >>> kind
  >>>  >of place you move to if you want to get away from it all. The nearest
  >>>  >neighbor is a mile away, and the closest big town has just 13,000
  >>>  >people. It is real, rural America; in fact, it???s a two-hour drive from
  >>>  >the exact geographical center of the United States.
  >>>  >
  >>>  >But instead of being a place of respite, the people who live on Joyce
  >>>  >Taylor???s land find themselves in a technological horror story.
  >>>  >
  >>>  >
  >>>  >For the last decade, Taylor and her renters have been visited by all
  >>>  >kinds of mysterious trouble. They???ve been accused of being identity
  >>>  >thieves, spammers, scammers and fraudsters. They???ve gotten visited by
  >>>  >FBI agents, federal marshals, IRS collectors, ambulances searching for
  >>>  >suicidal veterans, and police officers searching for runaway children.
  >>>  >They???ve found people scrounging around in their barn. The renters have
  >>>  >been doxxed, their names and addresses posted on the internet by
  >>>  >vigilantes. Once, someone left a broken toilet in the driveway as a
  >>>  >strange, indefinite threat.
  >>>  >
  >>>  >--Chris
  >>>  >
  >>>
  >>



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