Is this site on GPS or drugs?

Meta
#1

This isn't important and is merely a side-bar kind of 'well, whadda ya know!' thingy.

I checked my forum/community/chat-room Profile today. Why does it say I am in "Westbank, British Columbia, Canada"? I've never even been to Canada! Isn't Westbank in Israel (but found a tiny Westbank which is really called West Kelowna in Canada - finally)?

GPS is 'kiddie-kewl' and magical for the Googies, but come on, really? I am, as the crow flies, 1,875miles or 3,018 Kilometres away from Westbank BC! How about putting me on some lovely beach-front property in Belize, or a castle on the Swiss shores of the Rhine instead?

I know what GPS is, I also know how it works, and know how it is supposed to work. Isn't showing a visitors GPS location really just some koder showing off a kewl plugin, bell or whistle saying 'Pssst - I know where you are!"?... or think they do?

If this site wants to join in with the other Stalkers, at least get a better GPS. So far, Lord Google has shown me to be in Des Moines (correct), Bouvet Island (when I want some privacy), Madrid, Vancouver Wa, Vancouver BC, and of all places, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (with all those boys in uniform!) ... not that I always check, but sometimes, it's funny to see just how clumsy and moronic GPS can be. It's almost as dumb as A.I. (Artificial Idiots).

BTW - Bouvet Island is populated by penguins, rock and ice... and according to Google, me too (not to be confused with the more popular #metoo).

Just say'n s'all.
O

p.s. I very much appreciate the 'Community' from not using any Stalkers; at least none I can detect. And as for a rancid GPS - I don't mind Google being wrong most of the time, but no one has any business knowing where I am, when or where I came from or am going to. And it's not that I might have something to hide - I don't; it's just that I have nothing I am willing to show.

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#2

That's probably IP-based geolocation built into the forum software. I wonder if the admins can disable this particular feature.

1 Like
#3

It will be Discourse's (this forum software's) IP geolocation detection. It will look up your IP address and estimate your whereabouts, but an IP address alone isn't accurate. Sometimes due to how connections are made (ISPs, or VPNs) it may end up in a neighbouring town or city.

This info isn't public to other members, so your trust is with us in that we don't stalk. :slight_smile: We can't just turn it off either.

This IP geolocation isn't the same as GPS, since this website never explicitly asks for your location - even so, that would depend on the operating system to use the GPS hardware or "best guess" from its internet connection.

1 Like
#4

@lah7

You said " It will look up your IP address and estimate your whereabouts"

I have a question - "Why"? Why does anyone need to run any app/script/program/software/plugin/addon whatever it's called today, to detect, record and store my location into a profile designed just for me?

I know what the embedders of the Stalkware say it's for, to "enhance browsing pleasure', but how many are they conning with that line?

I'm NOT pointing fingers at Ubu/Linux groups/community/forums/chatrooms. I can see the 'group' is part of the Internet, not the Trashnet and treats us and our privacy with the respect we are all due. I hope Linux/Ubuntu take over the world... but the tools have to be made easier to use and understand first - at least for Ubuntu noobs like myself.

Long live Ubuntu (and me too)
~i~

#5

Storing IP addresses is necessary for forum software to identify malicious activity (like to see the sessions you're logged into and for us should investigate a problem). It also lets us blacklist the bad guys (like spammers signing up just to post junk).

I would guess the "IP lookup" data is only temporarily stored in memory. It can be fetched again later, since IP address data is public. Discourse is open source, so anyone could review the history and code for the project if you really wanted to know how it works:

Discourse originally introduced the IP lookup feature for admins:

Most of us probably wouldn't find an IP address on its own immediately useful. I suppose that's the reason why an IP lookup was added. You'd notice something was amiss if your account was logged in to a foreign country then seeing a jumble of numbers like 95.66.125.32 (that's a random address, by the way).

#6

@lah7

What I have to say is really not important at all, but we're just yakking right? So ... :slight_smile:

Yes. All you said is useful info and I hope many take heed for there are omens within that technology you describe.

You speak of IP, I was talking Location.
It's one thing to be listed in a phone book, as a comparison, but abuse totally different with the IP/Location.

When I land on website-whatever.com, the first thing is they check to see and record is my IP then, where I've been and then, adding insult to privacy, they attach trackers to follow me on their site, and wherever I go after that.

Hades! They can even tell if I am in a public washroom and for how long! It's not Jollywood Sci-Fi any more.

IP location gives many a general location. Better locators can use MAC addresses and track that instead of IP# - Ping the IP and grab the MAC. Try being private with VPN? That's a question that doesn't need an answer.

This is where your version of IP capture usefulness comes in lah7!:
We had a guy on staff that set up a poll. Some of the same people kept voting over and over, so he set it to allow only 1 vote per IP - which wasn't fair to others in the IPs home/office, so he changed it to 1 vote per CPU MAC.

Polls here (are there any?) probably use the account ID and/or IP.

Yes. IP comes in handy: UN-focusing from topic a bit - - I was working on my home box (Windows) and noted a lot of network traffic. I checked and long story short, a IP address from California was taking a lot of stuff.
Even shorter story, while he was exploring my HDD, I accessed his comp. I called the phone number where his comp was located, talked to his mother in the front of her high-end clothing store (1 in LA, Chicago, and New York BTW). She didn't believe me until she went in to her office and I told her what was on the screen. It was now a black screen with white text saying "Caught Ya!" I did that to the screen. I just went to his DOS - oh yeah, it's Command Prompt now. Then I told her I would delete what he took, and return control of her comp which I did right away - idiot had it in his Dload/his-name folder!

That was a long time ago - but now with advancements(?) in computer tech, it's easier to hack into a home computer, much harder to protect it and to get even and even much harder to remain a private person :cry:

It felt good when Mum started verbally wailing on the kid!

But, it was thanks to his IP#. We didn't have Geo location then we just had privacy.

That was in the old DOS/BBS days. Then came the Internet which after corporations took over turned it into the Trashnet.

Just chattin is all,
.O.