a quick note to say--

[kaberett]

In which the Internet is creepy: I spent Thursday & Friday nights at facesfriend's place. At no point did I connect to an internet via my laptop; at no point did I search the 'net for directions; and my phone Doesn't Internet and is in no wise associated with either Google or FB accounts. Most of our IMing is via gchat or IRC. How, then, is it that when I rocked up on facebook a little while ago from the Oxford Tube, it asked me if I lived in Cambridge, London, or facesfriend's area of town? BECAUSE IT HAS NEVER ASKED ME THAT BEFORE and Thursday was at most the second time I have been to that neck of the woods in my life.

Comments

[khronos_keeper]

Oh, it's okay! See, gchat gets saved in logs the way that emails do, so they're also searchable by google's personalized search algorithms. Also, if your phone is in anyway listed on Google or FB or any social media sites, they can probably cross link which cell towers your phone signal bounces off of? And finally, different social media sites and Google analyze your social network compared to what they can glean from your physical location.

However, finally, in terms of FB asking you if you were from Cambridge when you were in Oxford, since areas like that tend to be shit in terms of reliably geolocating your IP ping, they tend to extrapolate to the nearest town. If you'd reloaded, it probably would have asked you if you were from X town/city relatively nearby as well.

Sorry, I'm American and marginally affiliated with intelligence/security stuff, so I'm a bit less scared than most, mostly by way of a.) I'm resigned to its omnipresence and b.) entertained by its real life fallibility. :D