What Is Geolocation IP ?

Geolocation is the identification of the real-world geographic location of an object, such as a radar source, mobile phone orInternet-connected computer terminal. Geolocation may refer to the practice of assessing the location, or to the actual assessed location. For either geolocating or positioning, the locating engine often uses radio frequency (RF) location methods, for example Time Difference Of Arrival (TDOA) for precision. TDOA systems often utilise mapping displays or other geographic information system. Internet and computer geolocation can be performed by associating a geographic location with the Internet Protocol (IP) address, MAC address, RFID, hardware embedded article/production number, embedded software number (such as UUID,Exif/IPTC/XMP or modern steganography), invoice, Wi-Fi positioning system, device fingerprint, canvas fingerprinting or device GPS coordinates, or other, perhaps self-disclosed information. Geolocation usually works by automatically looking up an IP address on a WHOIS service and retrieving the registrant's physical address.

IP address location data can include information such as country, region, city, postal/zip code, latitude, longitude andtimezone. Deeper data sets can determine other parameters such as domain name, connection speed, ISP, language, proxies, company name, US DMA/MSA, NAICS codes, and home/business.

The word geolocation is also used in other contexts to refer to the process of inferring the location of a tracked animalbased, for instance, on the time history of sunlight brightness or the water temperature and depth measured by an instrument attached to the animal. At times geolocation can be more deductive, as with crowdsourcing efforts to determine the position of videos of training camps, combats, and beheadings in Syria by comparing features detected in the video with publicly available map databases such as Google Earth, as practiced by sites such as Bellingcat.

The word geolocation is also the latitude and longitude coordinates of a particular location.

Term and definition standardized by ISO/IEC 19762-5:2008.

Some standards and name servers include: ISO 3166, FIPS, INSEE, Geonames, IATA and ICAO. For geographic locations in the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Codes are often used. A number of commercial solutions have been proposed:

NAC Locator provides a universal geocoding address for all locations on the planet.

In computing, geolocation software is used to deduce the geolocation (geographic location) of another party. For example, on the Internet, one geolocation approach is to identify the subject party's IP address, then determine what country (including down to the city and post/ZIP code level), organization, or user the IP address has been assigned to, and finally, determine that party's location. Other methods include examination of a MAC address, image metadata, or credit card information.

There are a number of free and paid subscription geolocation databases, ranging from country level to state or city—including ZIP/post code level—each with varying claims of accuracy (generally higher at the country level). These databases typically contain IP address data which may be used in firewalls, ad servers, routing, mail systems, web sites, and other automated systems where geolocation may be useful. An alternative to hosting and querying a database is to obtain the country code for a given IP address through a DNSBL-style lookup from a remote server.

Some commercial databases have augmented geolocation software with demographic data to enable demographic-type targeting using IP address data.

The primary source for IP address data is the regional Internet registries which allocate and distribute IP addresses amongst organizations located in their respective service regions:

African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC)

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)

Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC)

Latin American and Caribbean Internet Address Registry (LACNIC)

RIPE Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC)

Secondary sources include:

Data mining or user-submitted geographic location data. Data contributed by internet service providers.

Merging databases from different suppliers.

Accuracy is improved by:

Data scrubbing to filter out or identify anomalies.

Statistical analysis of user submitted data.

Utilizing third-party tests conducted by reputable organizations.

A distinction can be made between co-operative and oppositional geolocation. In other cases, users prefer to not disclose their location for privacy or other reasons.

Technical measures for ensuring anonymity, such as proxy servers, can be used to circumvent restrictions imposed by geolocation software. In the UK, the application of the Data Protection Act means that geolocation will only yield the physical address of the ISP.

The technology is already widely used in multiple industries, including e-retail, banking, media, telecommunications, education, travel, hospitality, entertainment, health care, online gaming and law enforcement, for preventing online fraud, complying with regulations, managing digital rights and serving targeted marketing content and pricing. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has proposed that geolocation software might be leveraged to support 9-1-1 location determination.

By identifying where online visitors really are, geolocation can protect banks from participating in the transfer of funds for illicit purposes.

Online retailers and payment processors use geolocation to detect possible credit card fraud by comparing the user's location to the billing address on the account or the shipping address provided. IP address geolocation can be also used in fraud detection to match billing address postal code or area code. Banks can prevent “phishing” attacks, money laundering and other security breaches by determining the user's location as part of the authentication process.

Government, law enforcement and corporate security teams use geolocation as an investigatory tool, tracking the Internet routes of online attackers to find the perpetrators and prevent future attacks from the same location.

Since geolocation software can get the information of user location, companies using geomarketing may provide web content or products that are famous or useful in that location. Advertisements and content on a website may be tailored to provide the information that a certain user wants.

Internet movie vendors, online broadcasters who serve live streaming video of sporting events, or certain TV and music video sites that are licensed to broadcast their videos of episodes/music videos are permitted to serve viewers only in their licensed territories. Online casinos must also know where their customers are or risk violating national laws against Internet gambling.

In geo targeting web sites can show different web content based on a user's geolocation or other information. For example, going to google.com may redirect you to your local (translated) Google site like Google Belgium, or it may show a 'Go to Google Belgium'. In various European countries, Google or Yahoo! do not display results which would show negationistwebsites (see LICRA v. Yahoo!). In marketing applications, web sites with geolocation software can display different content based on a user's location, such as different advertising offers, merchandise selection, pricing and/or local currency and local news. Colleges and universities can use geolocation software to display relevant courses offered in specific locations. Chain store retailers, including restaurants, can display local offers, menus, and promotional offers unique to a certain geographical area. Financial institutions can show customers the nearest facilities based on their geographic location, as well as the lowest available home equity rates.

Hulu uses IP filtering that prevents anyone outside of U.S. IP ranges to use its service. Some users within U.S. are also being blocked because their IP has not been added to Hulu's Geo-IP database. Many users are able to navigate through geo-targeting by simply employing proxy or VPN service such as UnoTelly and Hotspot Shield.

Does IP Address Location (Geolocation) Really Work?

 IP addresses oncomputer networks do not represent specific geographic locations. It is still theoretically possible, however, to determine the physical location of IP addresses in many cases.

So-called geolocation systems attempt to map IP addresses to geographic locations using large computer databases. Some geolocation databases are available for sale, and some can also be searched for free online. Does this geolocation technology really work?

Geolocation systems generally function for their intended purpose(s) but also suffer from some important limitations.

How Is IP Address Location Used?

Geolocation can be used in several different cases:

Managing Web sites - Webmasters can use a geolocation service to track the geographic distribution of visitors to their site. Besides satisfying general curiosity, advanced Web sites can also dynamically change the content shown to each visitor based on their location. These sites may also block access to visitors from certain countries or locales.

Finding spammers - Individuals being harassed online often want to trace the IP address of email or instant messages.

Enforcing the law - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other agencies may use geolocation to find people illegally swapping media files on the Internet, although typically they work directly with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

What Are the Limitations of Geolocation?

IP address location databases have greatly improved in accuracy over the years. They may attempt to map each network address to a specific postal address or latitude/longitude coordinate.

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IP addresses may be associated with the wrong location (e.g., the wrong postal code, city or suburb within a metropolitan area).

Addresses may be associated only with a very broad geographic area (e.g., a large city, or a state). Many addresses are associated only with a city, not with a street address or latitude/longitude location.

Some addresses will not appear in the database and therefore cannot be mapped (often true for IP numbers not commonly used on the Internet).

Can WHOIS Be Used for Geolocation?

The WHOIS database was not designed to locate IP addresses geographically. WHOIS tracks the owner of an IP address range (subnet or block) and the owner's postal address. However, these networks may be deployed in a different location than that of the owning entity. In the case of addresses owned by corporations, addresses also tend to be distributed across multiple different branch offices. While the WHOIS system works well for finding and contacting owners of Web sites, it is a highly inaccurate IP location system.

Where Are Some Geolocation Databases?

Several online services allow you to search for the geographic location of an IP address by entering it into a simple Web form. Two popular services are Geobytes and IP2Location . Each of these services utilizes a proprietary databases of addresses based on Internet traffic flow and Web site registrations. A company named Skyhook Wireless has built a geolocation database of a different kind. Their system is designed to capture the Global Positioning System (GPS) location of home network routers and wireless access points , which may also include residential street addresses. The Skyhook system is not publicly available. What About Hotspot Databases?

Thousands of wireless hotspots are available for public use around the world. Various online databases exist for finding Wi-Fi hotspots which map a hotspot's location including its street address. These systems work well for travelers seeking Internet access. However, hotspot finders provide only the network name (SSID) of the access point and not its actual IP address.

How accurate is IP GeoLocation?

Where's Waldo? When you came to the whatismyIPaddress.com website, you saw that your IP address was conveniently displayed on the home page.

Country

Region

City

ZIP code

Longitude and latitude

Whoa! It came from the IP address geolocation service used to look at the IP address of wherever you were when you visited our site. The IP address you saw could be your home computer's IP address, or the one at the local coffee shop or airport. (Read our section on Change IP Address.)

After all, your name, street address, nickname or favorite color were not revealed. (If you go to our Hide IP address page you'll find out how that can happen.)

Check out Trace Email.

Accuracy rates on naming the city from an IP address vary between 50%-80%.

Determining the nation of an Internet user is 95%-99% percent accurate, for reasons that have to do with how IP addresses are allocated and registered.

Determining the physical location of the user, down to a city or ZIP code, is trickier and less accurate.