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Location

ldm2645
ldm2645
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Every time I go to a website that show location (Home Depot, Indeed) it shows my location as Philadelphia, PA. I am in Holley, NY. That's how it used to show up on Indeed. Why is it doing this now?

Every time I go to a website that show location (Home Depot, Indeed) it shows my location as Philadelphia, PA. I am in Holley, NY. That's how it used to show up on Indeed. Why is it doing this now?

All Replies (1)

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 10 Contributor
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Initially, sites guess your location from your public IP address. This typically is assigned to your current internet service (home, office, mobile, hotel, coffee shop, etc.). Your IP address could be more distant if you use a proxy server or VPN or other technology that changes how you connect to websites.

If you give a site permission to access your precise location -- the prompt looks like this:

-- then Firefox will ask Windows for information on nearby WiFi hotspots and send that to a Google location service to get your estimated lat/lon coordinates and then send those to the site. Usually that is pretty accurate.