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Learn Greater Selection For Wireless Access Indicate Owners

From tagging a ship amongst your location, to checking inwards to a restaurant, to but finding out where you lot are, location-based services bring pop off some of the most pop features of today’s Internet. One of the substitution ways applied scientific discipline companies are able to decide a place for these services is through a place database, which matches publicly broadcast information nearly local wireless networks amongst their gauge geographic location. By looking for wireless access points that are approximately a user’s phone, place providers tin render the gauge place you lot need. In addition, this method is a skillful alternative to other approaches, similar GPS, because it’s faster, it works indoors, in addition to it’s to a greater extent than battery-efficient.

The wireless access betoken information nosotros role inwards our place database, the Google Location Server, doesn’t position people. But equally first mentioned inwards September, nosotros tin create to a greater extent than to address privacy concerns.

We’re introducing a method that lets you lot opt out of having your wireless access betoken included inwards the Google Location Server. To opt out, view your access point’s settings in addition to alter the wireless network cry (or SSID) in addition to thus that it ends amongst “_nomap”.  For example, if your SSID is “Network”, you‘d take away to alter it to “Network_nomap”.

To acquire started, view this Help Center article to acquire to a greater extent than nearly the procedure in addition to to uncovering links amongst specific instructions on how to alter an access point’s SSID for diverse wireless access betoken manufacturers.

As nosotros explored dissimilar approaches for opting-out access points from the Google Location Server, nosotros works life that a method based on wireless network names provides the correct residual of simplicity equally good equally protection against abuse. Specifically, this approach helps protect against others opting out your access betoken without your permission.

Finally, because other place providers volition too travel able to uncovering these opt-outs, nosotros promise that over fourth dimension the “_nomap” string volition travel adopted universally. This would attention create goodness all users past times providing everyone amongst a unified opt-out procedure regardless of place provider.

Update Nov 21: Edited punctuation to clarify the "_nomap" tag.



(Cross posted on the European Public Policy Blog)