I noticed they have geo-location enabled in Firefox, which could be a privacy risk to some users as some service providers are capable of providing a geo-location to within a few meters of actual location.
To turn this off:
- Type about:config into your address bar.
- Click "I'll be careful, I promise!"
- Type geo.enabled into the find as you type box & double click it to set it to false.
I'm sure it'll also affect things like MapQuest and Google Earth etc. so remember how to turn it back on.
Shouldn't affect mapquest, because you enter your departure and arrival & it calculates from your input.
Google Earth is a separate program. You can fly to anywhere in Google Earth that is mapped, so it won't affect that either.
So far as knowing where you are, it wouldn't affect it in Google Earth if you had it turned off in Firefox, because it is a separate program from Firefox.
Firefox and Google Earth may look separate to us,
but to Google they are direct connections to your IP address.
Use Google Earth and from then on they know the location of your IP address regardless of browser settings until such time as you get a new IP address.
I think this might be somewhere in the small print of the recent "joined-up enhancements" to the Google Empire Experience
That's true. Although they are still separate programs.
If you use Google Earth, they will know your location, but turning off Geo-tracking in Firefox should not affect Google Earth at all, since it has it's own built in geo-tracking.
Agreed, but once Google Earth has got your location then a Google Street Car can be dispatched for continuous video surveillance
I would like to think that was a joke, but perhaps the FBI have already got this implemented.
Google has been experimenting with autonomous cars for several years now. Driverless cars, if you will. Have you heard about that?
They claim that tests have been very successful. I think it is indeed possible. After all, it was only a few days back that DARPA was in the news for a triangular wedge shaped craft that could/would exceed the speed of sound by 20 times.
Sound travels 1,100 feet per second on an approximation, & this means they are traveling about 5 miles per second on approximation. Or did, till the craft was subjected to 100 + times more force than they imagined at such speeds, & ripped apart.
At those speeds, you could make a trip from L.A. to N.Y in 12 minutes.
No, Alan, I don't think your idea is far fetched at all. They already do have those capabilities.
OOOOOPS
So Google Street Cars + Predator Drones + supersonic triangles.
Where can we run to.
We're doomed, man, we're doomed.
But if there is an afterlife, Karma is coming back, & it will take a vengeance, cause I will bring hell with me, LOL!
Geolocation makes me laugh in my case, because it always thinks I'm 80 miles from where I actually am, but of course that's because my ISP is there.
Remember the Google Toilet.