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Comment by rhizome | Hacker News Reader

>You do know how this happened right? Wifi SSIDs with similar strengths reveal if people are in the same area, then just correlate timestamps and viola!

The problem is that someone decided to correlate them, not to mention without asking.

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It is possible to opt-out of Google's Wi-Fi network location mapping by appending "_nomap" to SSID[1], I'm not sure if it works with other providers. Although I think this should have been opt-in instead of opt-out, the least we deserve is a standard, guaranteed way to universally opt-out.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Google-Maps-Wi-Fi-Location...

Why it's always us who have to do the work to avoid being harassed by google? If I don't want to have my site harvested for snippets I have to add a no-snippet tag. If I don't want my WiFi data harvested I have to append an ugly nomap to my SSID. What about being it opt-in, as you said? I'm tired of doing Google's dirty work...

By the way, quoting from the article:

> "Specifically, this approach helps protect against others opting out your access point without your permission."

Oh, thank you for your kindness, Google. Yes, the idea of another person denying me the joy of having my WiFi data harvested by you is terrifying. Thanks, Google. You really know how to be helpful...

Especially because Google mapping your WiFi comes with real downsides for you. Two years ago a random stranger rung my doorbell and told me their Android phone got stolen and according to Find My Device, the device was inside my house and even showed it to me live. I told them to wait on the street and checked the roof and yard, but didn't find the device. I simply told them I can't help further and they luckily took it well, thanked me and left. Imagine how easily such a situation can get ugly though. A day or so later i realized that my Wifi router happens to be at an oddly open corner of my house, facing the backyard, and visible for much further than you'd expect since there are also no other structures for quite a distance. I bet his phone was somewhere there but saw my WiFi and so it erroneously located itself in my house. Thanks Google!

That's ridiculous, IMO. This is also confirmed by Google's support document on this feature: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/1725632?hl=en#zippy=%...

Changing one's SSID after the fact can be extremely annoying depending on the number of devices that need to be updated.

There has to be a better way.

This isn't relevant - we're not talking about building a map of SSID to location, we're talking about using SSIDs to infer relationships between people; the SSIDs don't even have to be in any kind of location DB for that, what allowed Facebook to infer this relationship is that both the author's and their therapist's device regularly saw the same SSIDs.

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