
GPS freaking out? Maybe you’re too close to Putin - ingve
https://nrkbeta.no/2017/09/18/gps-freaking-out-maybe-youre-too-close-to-putin/
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nradov
Previously discussed here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13533714](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13533714)

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exikyut
Hang on, what about Wi-Fi positioning? That would give the correct location
data regardless of GPS.

Either this kind of tech doesn't work in Russia for some reason, it hasn't
been enabled for some countries, or this is a nice piece of undisputable proof
that Google, Apple, etc really do have high-level ties.

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cududa
I think you're mistaken about a few things here?

1: The network's used to triangulate that are tied to a GPS location retrieved
from some historical log of when a car drove by it and logged it as a known
location. [https://www.quora.com/How-does-WiFi-improve-the-GPS-
location](https://www.quora.com/How-does-WiFi-improve-the-GPS-location)

2: How would boats on the open sea receive wifi?

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exikyut
OK, both fair points.

I'm referring to [https://youtu.be/dfLE_nXh7jY](https://youtu.be/dfLE_nXh7jY),
the video mentioned just after halfway down. Google Maps is also referred to
elsewhere in the article as well, as are many anecdotes of people proving this
with phones.

Regarding #1, yes, Wi-Fi positioning is based on an initial "known good" data
collection that is then improved by a quorum of unrelated devices continuously
and consistently reporting a given group of SSIDs when at a certain GPS
location. But if you have a device reporting, say, 10 or 20 hotspots, and that
collection of however many SSIDs is unique in the entire world, and then the
device GPS kicks in and says it's 20 or 200 or 2000 miles away from that
location... and then a number of devices start reporting the same
information... that's going to show up on a dashboard somewhere, because
exactly the same kind of behavior would occur in a Wi-Fi positioning service
attack situation. So the recipients of this conflicting information have a
decision to make about whether to silently not report the conflict, or not. I
wouldn't believe a line like "the algorithms are forgiving and will trust the
same information reported from 50 devices as accurate"; a moderately
determined actor could spin up hundreds of "devices" just by using SDK
emulators, and anyone even more determined could figure out the Wi-Fi
positioning protocol (I remember an article on here noting how Apple Wi-Fi
positioning works - IIRC there was very little validation if you just wanted
to find the location of a given list of SSIDs) and generate theoretically
infinite "GPS/SSID correlation update" packets.

Regarding #2, you are right; ships (particularly without VTS data service)
rely entirely on GPS. I'm not challenging that though.

If I have misunderstood your meaning please let me know. (No offense
intended.)

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abogdanovich
It's an anti drone system, since many drones are hardcoded to not fly in
airport areas.

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Tijdreiziger
That doesn't make it OK.

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ddmma
This could explain also why you might meet russian ships on your way

[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-russia-
ship/russia...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-russia-ship/russian-
intelligence-ship-sinks-off-turkeys-black-sea-coast-idUSKBN17T1Q1)

