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by efraim 1834 days ago
How do you look it up in their database?
3 comments

It's commercially available.

Joe Stalker, however, probably won't get it from google. Unfortunately there are many other databases, including ones available at low cost (or free: https://wigle.net/ ) which the stalker is more likely to use, unless they work at google. And when you add "nomap" to turn off google's tracking you'll make your SSID more unique and trackable in every other database.

Right, Joe Stalker won't get it from Google. Joe Stalker will get it from the unprotected S3 bucket of the company that got it from Google.
You’re broadcasting more than your ssid, but your base station MAC too. Unless you clone that too.

Since ssid is used as a seed in encryption, there’s value in making it unique.

if you use a strong passphrase the unique ssid protection against a table doesn't matter, but it's a worthwhile point to raise.
Rich Joe Stalker probably would. Not directly from google, maybe, but from a company that gets it from a company that gets it from google.
Here's one: https://wigle.net
I just queried my home ssid on there. I thought it was a pretty unique pun, but 216 other access points have the same ssid. If my phone was probing for it then you could narrow me down quite a bit, but you would need more than that.
I'd agree that a basic mapping of SSID name to approximate location is a bit useless on its own, but it can be combined with other information to narrow down your physical location.

Geographically speaking, how were those SSID's distributed? Were they spread all around the world, across the continent, or were they all in the same city?

For example, if your home SSID was known and those 216 SSID's were spread around the world, your home could likely be narrowed down based on some general facts from forum posts. "You spell honor with a U! You often complain about the rain on the forums, and those posts came from that ISP's IP block! According to the public coverage maps for that ISP in that English-speaking country that uses British spellings, your wireless network overlaps with this side of the street, give or take 30m. Let's check it out!"

Paranoid fantasy? I truly hope so.

If you used the other SSIDs your phone was looking for and cross referenced, I bet confidence could get a lot closer to certain - 99%?
right, but probably I can make it unique knowing a town name or just one or two extra things about you.
I love how it picks up in-flight WiFi.
through the api

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/geolocation...

there are also many open source wifi location databases that can be downloaded and queried locally

devices listening to ssid broadcasts for this purpose are common at grocery stores, malls, political protests, and more

That API requires the MAC address of a wifi access point. You can't get that from a client probing for a hidden ssid.