Mozilla
Firefox is attempting to provide geolocation lookups to list mobile phones,
satellite and WiFi connections in different locations.
It
will pick up new connections and list them on its Mozilla Location Service site so
users can identify their approximate location even if they have weak GPS signal
or laptops without GPS hardware.
The
pilot project provides the geolocation lookups based on publicly observable
cell tower and WiFi access point information. It is collecting its data from
users who are contributing via its app, MozStumbler, and a leaderboard to
encourage its crowdsourcers to gather more information
.Mozilla
is asking people to upload the app and simply keep it turned on as they travel
so it can feed back data to Mozilla.
On a
blogpost on its website, it stated: "While many commercial services exist
in this space, there’s currently no large public service to provide this
crucial part of any mobile ecosystem. Mobile phones with a weak GPS signal and
laptops without GPS hardware can use this service to quickly identify their
approximate location.
""Even
though the underlying data is based on publicly accessible signals, geolocation
data is by its very nature personal and privacy sensitive. Mozilla is committed
to improving the privacy aspects for all participants of this service offering."
Geolocation
data is used by commerical companies such as Google and IPligence but here is
still no large public service option, Mozilla said.
“None
of the current companies offering this type of service have any incentive to
improve on privacy,” Mozilla said in its Wiki page for the project.
“In
order to do this assessment, we need to understand the technological challenges
and get real data."
The
data could be made available to the pubic and could eventually create
programmes to rival existing ones such as Google Maps.
Google
uses geolocation data but has previously faced legal issuesfor mapping
data from Wi-Fi networks without asking for their owners' permission.
Source: Telegraph
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