How did Win 10 Geolocate my desktop so precisely?

[michail71]

I'm curious as to how Windows 10 geolocated my desktop down to my house. I have no GPS sensor on the system.

I figure either Comcast provides it accurately to the IP address or it's using WiFi positioning.

How accurate is it for you?

How did it get such precision for me?

 

[Ed Boland]

You answered your own question. Yes, basically it's a software based GPS using WiFi and IP triangulation to pinpoint your location. These sensors were introduced with Windows 7.

Read more about "Geosense" here:

First Windows 7 location sensor released, GPS without the hardware

 

[michail71]

The center dot is dead on the location of the AP inside my house. I wonder if Comcast might have a gps receiver in their gateway?

 

[Bryon Burns]

If sharing Wi-Fi information on your Windows phone is enabled then that would also explain. I know Google uses that collective information in their geo sense as well from their Android phones.

 

[michail71]

Yeah, I forgot about that. Our phones feed all this info back to the cloud. Then Windows uses the WiFi landscape to get the location.

Mining all this geo data must be fascinating work. I've seen where they can tell how much money an individual makes, where you work, who interacts with who, etc. just by tracking this data.