Keeping websites from knowing where I live

Posted by D Connors on Super User See other posts from Super User or by D Connors
Published on 2010-03-03T00:50:40Z Indexed on 2010/03/20 12:41 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 361

Filed under:

privacy

|

geolocation

|

tracking

This questions is related to issues and practicality, not security.

I live in Brazil and, apparently, every single website I visit knows about it. Usually that's okay. But there are quite a few sites that don't make use of that information adequately.

For instance:

Bing keeps thinking that Brazilian pages are way more relevant to me than American ones (which they're not).
google.com always redirects me to google.com.br
Microsoft automatically sends me to horribly translated support pages in Portuguese (which would just be easier to read in English).

These are just a few examples. Usually it's stuff I can live with (or work around), but some of them are just plain irritating.

I have geolocation disabled in Firefox, so I guess they're either getting this information from my IP or from Windows itself (which I bought here).

Is there a way to avoid this? Either tell them nothing or make them think I live somewhere else?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about privacy

Cyber Threats Pit Privacy Versus Security

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Security experts are torn between just how far the government and the private sector should go to protect critical data from cyber criminals without violating individual rights. >>> More
Orion Launches Privacy App for BlackBerry

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
Allows users to report telemarketing violations, block unwanted calls, and indentify unknown numbers. >>> More
Internet Privacy in 2010: What&#146;s In Store

as seen on Internet.com - Search for 'Internet.com'
2010 could be a big year in Internet privacy legislation, which may affect how marketers(and small businesses)collect customer information. Heres a look at the issues facing the FTC. >>> More
Help Protect Your Children with the CEOP Enhanced Internet Explorer 8

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Do you want to make Internet Explorer safer and more helpful for you and family? Then join us as we look at the CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) enhanced version of Internet Explorer 8. Setting CEOP Up We chose to install the whole CEOP pack in order to have access to complete… >>> More
The Best Ways to Lock Down Your Multi-User Computer

as seen on How to geek - Search for 'How to geek'
Whether you’re sharing a computer with other family members or friends at home, or securing computers in a corporate environment, there may be many reasons why you need to protect the programs, data, and settings on the computers. This article presents multiple ways of locking down a Windows 7 computer… >>> More

Related posts about geolocation

Which Devices Support Javascript Geolocation via navigator.geolocation ?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The iPhone supports geolocation in mobile Safari via the following call: navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition( function(pos){ var lat = pos.coords.latitude; var long = pos.coords.longitude; }, function(){ /* Handler if location could not be found */ } ); I'd like to build… >>> More
iPhone - Native App GeoLocation VS Web App GeoLocation

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Here's my situation; I've built a very simple web app that looks up a users location and plots it on a Google map. Here's my code: http://pastebin.com/d3a185efd When I test it, my location is detected as being = 500 meters from where I actually stand. BUT When I open up Google Maps or Gowalla… >>> More
user disallowed geolocation - notify user second time

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
When trying to get geolocation on iPhone the first time - I declined. Every other time I want to get the location (before another reload of the page) I get no response (no error and no success): navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition( function (location) { ig_location.lat = location… >>> More
How to get my geolocation in bash

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am looking for a good geolocation api to use from bash. I want this call to return at the very minimum the name of the city I am in, and the state. I imagine that there must be some site I can curl, or some scripting language that has a package that works. The machine does not have a GPS, but it… >>> More
Geolocation Firefox accurate than iPhone Safari?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I just tested Geolocation on Firefox 3.6 and iPhone Safari (os 3.1.3), the result is interesting, firefox is more accurate than safari. any one got idea how to make iPhone Safari result more accurate. this is the code for testing: navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(handler, {enableHighAccuracy:… >>> More