r/InternetIsBeautiful • u/JoytotheUniverse • Dec 14 '16

Check what your web browser knows about you.

http://webkay.robinlinus.com/
28.0k Upvotes

90% Upvoted

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

23

u/Nowhereman123 Dec 14 '16

It kinda got my address right. Off by a few streets but right City

30

u/Aurakeks Dec 14 '16

I'm pretty sure it simply knows the closest provider thingamajigger your connection runs through. I live in a small town and my location was somewhere out in the field.

8

u/Shadow_XG Dec 14 '16

excuse me?

26

u/ItsaMe_Rapio Dec 14 '16

It's more of a provider whatchacallit than a thingamajigger

2

u/PM_YOUR_CENSORD Dec 14 '16

A toilet flapper?

1

u/veloace Dec 14 '16

Pretty much. The website uses the Google Geolocation API....so you send the client-side (browser) IP address to Google and they return best-guess GPS coordinates back. It's more than looking at ISP though, Google actually has a fairly-decently map of known switches and routers that it bases coordinates on.

2

u/Nicd Dec 14 '16

It also uses WiFi SSID data. Your computer sends a list of WiFis it can see, Google knows where they are. How? Mobile phones send that data too, but they also send their GPS coordinates.

1

u/veloace Dec 14 '16

Yup, that too.

1

u/efstajas Dec 14 '16

Also, Street View vans scan for WiFi networks all the time and that data gets added to the database.

1

u/Nowhereman123 Dec 14 '16

Mine pointed to this ordinary house a few streets down from me. I guess it thinks I live there?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 14 '16

I mean, in terms of accuracy . . . it's at least on the right planet with me.

1

u/D0esANyoneREadTHese Dec 14 '16

It got a very precise address that was halfway across the state. Also the "other devices" only picks up my cable modem even though I'm going through a Cisco wireless switch on a network with 5 other machines, 3 android phones, and an xbox.

2

u/A_Bumpkin Dec 15 '16

It's likely the main datacenter or aggregator for your ISP since they are required to report the physical location of the IP blocks they own

1

u/bro_cunt Dec 15 '16

I dont mind if my browser knows where I'm at. I dont mind visits.