How does Google Latitude know where I am?

This worries the hell out of me. Google Latitude knows my exact location just from me using the internet on my own wireless network. How on earth do they do this?

What do you mean by exact? The address?

Your IP address usually locates you fairly closely.

On the map Google pinpoints my house exactly. How could they do this with my IP address surely that info is known only to my ISP?

So what are you doing in Google that tells you where you are?

The Google Latitude gadget shows a map with an arrow showing my exact location.

OK, I had to google Google Latitude to find out what it was.

The gadget is on your computer?

On a GPS phone it is easy of course. Mine tracks me on Nokia Ovi maps.

On a computer maybe it can pick up the GPS signals through your wireless card? I confess I don't know, but I wouldn't think that impossible.

(Edit - added the missing n't).

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 29-Aug-10 22:35:28)

Err if you are signed up to google services and google lattitude its your mobile phone it tracks, google lattitude AFAIK is nothing to do with your computer, try leaving you phone at work one day and then running google lattitude at home..... More than likely it will point to works location not your home.

You can also disable the service see nobody can see your location once you have signed up to it. Thats what privacy settings are for!

It can work via GPS and you have to tell it your location initially anyway, so maybe that why it knows you are at home, because you told it LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Oq-9enE-k

Edited by deleted (Sun 29-Aug-10 22:49:33)

It runs off your phone, and either uses GPS, or the mobile network AGPS and triangulation stuff, or both. Even with GPS itself off, mine is normally accurate to within a few meters.

They are not using my phone so they must have scanned and picked up my wireless network somehow. Then they have linked it to my IP address though how I don't know. All a bit sinsiter really...

Edited by deleted (Mon 30-Aug-10 08:51:34)

It probably works off the MAC address of your wireless router. When the Google cars went around the world photographing for streetmap they also sniffed local wireless traffic. They have a massive database of MAC addresses and locations. Ironically if you google for this you will find a lot of hits. The Germans were particularly upset.

I forget how they (later) find your MAC address when you are on-line and normally only reveal an IP address. There is a hack to make your machine reveal its MAC address against your wishes but in your instance you've probably ticked a box somewhere.