Some of the tech press has been reporting recently that owners of iPhones are being tracked – automatically, and without the ability to disable the function. It turns out to be true, but with sufficiently low accuracy that its not really an issue – except the principle.
What I’ve found more interesting – and more confusing because I can’t see the value – is that Google knows where I am. More precisely, Google knows where my wireless router is.
Every bit of computer kit has a MAC address – and wireless routers both have one and transmit it (even if they are set up encrypted). To get the MAC address for your router (Windows) open up a command window and type “arp -a”.
Then go to http://samy.pl/androidmap/index.php and input that address. I did – and you can see the result for yourself by going to http://bit.ly/dJuSNA – that’s pretty accurate.
What Google (or anyone else) is going to do with that, I don’t know – but it just goes to show that you can’t hide …
