
Ask HN: Less Evil Alternative to MaxMind GeoIP Db? - sethito
I&#x27;ve been using the geoip db from MaxMind for over a decade now; however, I&#x27;ve noticed the accuracy of both the free and paid dbs have fallen to unacceptable levels. I also recently learned that it is against their aup to build publicly facing systems based on their data (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.maxmind.com&#x2F;en&#x2F;sitelicense).<p>Are there any <i>accurate</i> alternatives that don&#x27;t use MaxMind&#x27;s free db?
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mulligan
I can understand the policy and I'm not sure it makes them evil. You could
build a publicly facing system that was simply an API into their database,
thus providing the public with the data you licensed.

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duncantuna
This site will let you download their geolocation database ..
[http://software77.net/geo-ip/](http://software77.net/geo-ip/)

License info: [http://software77.net/geo-
ip/?license](http://software77.net/geo-ip/?license)

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phoenix69
[http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp](http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp)

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sethito
That works great until the user pushes "No, I don't want you go geolocate me".

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sarciszewski
If the user doesn't want to be geolocated, why are you going to geolocate
them?

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dangrossman
Basic web stats reports. Checking that you're getting the geotargeting you
paid for when you advertise. Preventing credit card fraud (billing address in
one country, user located in another, detecting open proxies, etc). Lots of
reasons geolocation has been used since long before browsers had a mobile-
style API for it on the client side.

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sarciszewski
And if the user withdraws their consent (clicking "No", DNT headers, etc.)
that should be the end of it. Don't locate, don't track, don't subvert user's
consent.

Just flag it as "no location information available" if you need to use it for
an access control/fraud prevention mechanism and be aware that determined bad
guys can spoof almost every signal you receive from them.

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mavelikara
I have had good success with NeuStar.

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thenomad
What are the costs associated with that?

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mavelikara
They were about the same cost or slightly more than the MaxMind paid version.

