Opt out your Wi-Fi network from Google's location services with an SSID tweak

androidpolice.com

34 points·arafsheikh··11 comments

> If you're adamant about protecting your privacy, this will prevent your Wi-Fi network and its location from being saved to Google and Microsoft servers

It does not prevent that. It's an indicator that asks these companies nicely to not save the data - there is no prevention mechanism.

Right. Apple doesn't respect it and has given no indication it ever will.

So, how long until Apple joins in and requires "_dontmapme" as the suffix?

_dontmapmebro

This is Do Not Track for WiFi

TL;DR:

> Just add "_nomap" to your network's name to opt out from Google's service.

> Microsoft requires you to include "_optout" somewhere in your SSID.

> So you'd need to create an ID such as "1234_optout_nomap" to reject both services.

––––

Ugh, this seems really annoying, because SSIDs are limited to 32 chars, and you give up 13 just opting out of these services

Right. Why can't Microsoft just respect _nomap as well as _optout? It's clear what the user's intent is. Also, according to the article, Google requires _nomap to be at the end. Apparently Microsoft doesn't require the same for _optout, but what if they did?

_nomap works also for Mozilla's location tracking thing.

> which the company maps via crowdsourcing and Street View cars

So, if I hide my SSID then they wouldn't be able to find it?

Hiding an SSID is just a feature to not show it to the user. The device already know of its existence.

Opt-out is kinda pointless in "crowded" places. They just take the other 10 wifi near you.

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