What is Geolocation - why should I be interested? - SOZO Web Design Agency (2024)

FAQs

What is website geolocation? ›

Geolocation is the ability to determine an internet user's physical location. This awareness can be used for almost any purpose, from targeted advertising and fraud prevention to law enforcement and emergency response.

Geolocation refers to the use of location technologies such as GPS or IP addresses to identify and track the whereabouts of connected electronic devices. Because these devices are often carried on an individual's person, geolocation is often used to track the movements and location of people and surveillance.

Geolocation Generates Geographical Data

GPS chips in smart devices generate and provide location data. One of the most common examples of a GPS chip is a smartphone with applications that can recommend food, shopping or destinations based on proximity and provide directions to almost any location.

Geolocation refers to the identification of the geographic location of a computing device using a variety of data collection mechanisms. Typically, most geolocation services use network routing addresses or internal GPS chips to determine this location. Geolocation is a device-specific API.

The good: IP geolocation at the country level is fairly reliable within the US. The bad: It's less reliable outside the US and not at all reliable at the city level. The frustrating: IP geolocation is inherently a guessing game. It'll never be perfect; the only question is how often it'll be wrong.

On your computer, open Google Maps. Right-click the place or area on the map. This will open a pop-up window. You can find your latitude and longitude in decimal format at the top.

Many people do not mind a website knowing their location. It can, however, be problematic and make individuals more vulnerable to security threats if used unnecessarily. Any data that does not need to be shared online, should not be entered.

The FTC considers precise geolocation data to be sensitive personal information, and failure to reasonably protect this information, or failure to adequately disclose its collection or sharing, would violate Section 5 of the FTC Act for unfair or deceptive trade practices.

GPS does not require any form of internet connectivity. As already mentioned, GPS dependent on the signals from satellites. Anyone can harness these signals using a GPS receiver. You can test this fact by turning of the internet connection on your phone and try to use google maps.

Google also uses aggregated anonymous location information for research and to show community trends. To see more ways that location information is used, visit the Google Privacy Policy.

How we can use geolocation? ›

Most modern web browsers support geolocation through the Geolocation API. This API uses a combination of GPS, Wi-Fi positioning, and cellular network triangulation to determine the user's location. The Geolocation API can be used with JavaScript to request the user's location from the browser.

Substantial Accuracy: IP geolocation has a high degree of accuracy at the country level. In fact, it can accurately determine the country associated with an IP address in nearly 99% of cases. City-Level Accuracy: At the city level, the accuracy remains impressive, with an average accuracy rate of around 80-90%.

Advantages of Geolocation Systems

Companies can optimize their logistics operations by tracking the real-time position of their vehicles and goods. This helps reduce costs, improve efficiency, and better satisfy customers.

Important: When you turn off location on your phone, apps and services can't get your phone's location. You can still get local results and ads based on your IP address.

Browser geolocation is a technology supported by almost all web browsers which enables users to share their location - in the form of geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude) - with a web service.