On: InMobi Settles FTC Charges for Tracking Consumer Locations without Permission

[epoxyhockey]

[...] InMobi collected nearby basic service set identification addresses, which act as unique serial numbers for wireless access points. The company [...] then fed each BSSID into a "geocorder" database to infer the phone user's latitude and longitude

The author of this article might need a new technical advisor.

[GrumpyYoungMan → epoxyhockey]

Other than "geocoder" being incorrectly written as "geocorder", it's correct. That's how the WiFi trilateration systems in cell phones used for determining location work; it's a simple DB lookup plus a small bit of math.

[teej → epoxyhockey]

Why exactly? It says that the company was inferring location based on nearby wireless networks. Does your quote not accurately reflect that?

[epoxyhockey → teej]

1) geocorder, with a random "r"

2) you don't plug in a BSSID into a geocoder, you would use something like wigle.net to go from BSSID -> lat/long

[teej → epoxyhockey]

1) Typos happen

2) That's why geocoder is in quotes. It's a system that performs an operation similar to a geocoder.

[whamlastxmas → epoxyhockey]

What's wrong with it?