Achieve a free web tracking location permits a margin of error of 690 meters

Scientists at the University of Illinois have managed to build a network monitoring system with a maximum error of 690 meters, ie a system able to reach you through your IP (without the person has been granted privileges) the tracking within a maximum radius that is less than 700 meters. The news would change (for the worse, depending how you look) the new online advertising system, who are currently working with a precision of not less than 35 miles to the location of the user.

Yong Wang, computer scientist in China, has been commissioned to carry out the project in conjunction with scientists from the University of Illinois. To perform the technique, used Wang firms in China and the U.S. University as reference points to achieve much greater accuracy, since in both cases used to house the local web server, so the IP servers are tied to physical location.

Wang used Google Maps to find both the web and physical addresses of both organizations. The result gave him about 76,000 points of reference. If we compare it with other methods of geolocation, the difference is huge, since the latter are just a few hundred benchmarks set. The method consists of three stages:

• A first in which measures the time it takes to send a data packet to the "goal" and makes it a distance.
• A second part where Wang and his colleagues sent the data packet to the Google Maps server benchmarks to find the routers they pass through. In this way, sharing router at the destination and point of reference, the researchers could compare the time it takes to get to each machine from the router.
• The last stage has to do with the repetition of the search to be more accurate, comparing time delay and once again approaching and the distance as possible.

Although as they say, the result today may not be accurate, ensure that the method gets a value obtained does not exceed the 690-meter radius with an accuracy that can reach 100 meters.

Moreover, until now there was a need for this kind of accuracy that the user deliberately reveal their location, with Wang's method are not necessary permits. A step forward, although it could be used to improve search results of individual users, could also be used between online advertisers to improve the tracking of each of us.

Achieve a free web tracking location permits a margin of error of 690 meters written in Bitelia on 9 April, 2011 by miguel-jorge
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