Re: geolocation services disabled and Gnome maps
On Fri 10 Apr 2020 at 16:11:16 (-0000), Curt wrote:
> On 2020-04-10, <tomas@tuxteam.de> <tomas@tuxteam.de> wrote:
> >
> >> So you're saying that Gnome Maps *uses* the geolocation library even in
> >> the case of a user who has explicitly turned that "feature" off in his
> >> privacy settings, in blatant disregard of those settings?
> >> That is really an egregious bug, then, and should be reported.
>
> > Perhaps just a misunderstanding, and Gnome simply calls
> > "geolocation" to call into whatever API thingmajig your
> > smartphone offers to query the GPS+plus+cell-tower position
> > determination Rube Goldbergism? Falling back to Ip based
> > guessing when that fails (or is disallowed)?
> >
> > I just don't know.
>
> https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/privacy-location.html.en
>
> Geolocation, or location services, uses cell tower positioning, GPS, and
> nearby Wi-Fi access points to determine your current location for use in
> setting your timezone and by applications such as Maps. When enabled, it
> is possible for your location to be shared over the network with a great
> deal of precision.
>
> Turn off the geolocation features of your desktop
> Open the Activities overview and start typing Privacy.
>
> Click on Privacy to open the panel.
>
> Switch the Location Services switch to off.
>
> To re-enable this feature, set the Location Services switch to on.
Having all those other methods (cells/GPS/wifi) available is why I'm
asking for information, rather than beliefs, from the OP. Whether they
have a privacy leak would be revealed. There's nothing to prevent
anybody from "determining" a machine's location from its IP address
when it's used to post to a public forum. Even "Columbia" seemed to
surprise the OP, yet their timezone is enough to suggest western
South America if not central North America (currently DST).
Cheers,
David.
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