Is my location private?

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OK, so I have Win 11 pro  and am running a VPN. My PC connects to my router with a cable.

WhatsmyIP and similar return the VPN IP address, and this looks up to be where it is supposed to be.

If I want to find my local emporium, they have one of those googlemap pages with a button for "find my location"

If I click it I get a popup asking if whatever the website is can access my location.

If I click "yes" then it returns my real location to within a few metres!

As far as I can tell this is because google/GCHQ/Microsoft etc. have had ages to build up a countrywide map of the location of every fixed Wifi source & cell tower, and something on my network is snitching me up. 

(Obviously Chris is right and they use the tracking on everyones phones and what wifi they can see to build up the map https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt7IDMXPoH0)

 I do have Wifi on, and my phone connects to it, along with Alexa, my radio, my tablet, and the laptop if it is on.

So long preamble aside,

What exactly is snitching me up, and how can I either disable it, or persuade it to report a different location?

I don't understand how if I don't click on ok they just use my VPN IP address, but if I do click ok they know to a few metres- is it my PC that knows? But it doesn't have a Wifi card, so it must be getting the list of nearby SSIDs or even my router SSID from my network somehow.

pearb34

Your vpn might not be very good, i just tried it with setting my vpn location to USA and it shows im in Kansas City, USA but im actually in the UK or the browser you use is capturing more info about you than you think, chrome is know to do that. Try it again in firefox.

HillStreetBlues

Is it a Sim card router?

Vitor

Check if your VPN has a browser add-in that overrides the Browser Geolocation API, some have a 'geo spoofing' and WebRTC blocking which will make you appear to be in the same City location as the VPN Server you're connected to.

Use this site to check if WebRTC is revealing the public IP address allocated by your ISP and not that of the VPN

WebRTC Leak Test: Prevent IP Address Leaks | ExpressVPN

HillStreetBlues

Vitor said:

Check if your VPN has a browser add-in that overrides the Browser Geolocation API, some have a 'geo spoofing' and WebRTC blocking which will make you appear to be in the same City location as the VPN Server you're connected to.

Use this site to check if WebRTC is revealing the public IP address allocated by your ISP and not that of the VPN

WebRTC Leak Test: Prevent IP Address Leaks | ExpressVPN

I've tried that site before and just get "WebRTC Leak Test incomplete"
https://browserleaks.com/webrtc works fine.

Olinda99

As always, it depends who wants to know your location and why 

if you don't want your mum to know where you are then you're probably safe. If you're trying to hide from law enforcement then you're not

forgotmyname

People rely on VPN's far too much.  The browser and website maybe giving away more data than you realise.

I run a forum and have a few game servers, I can collect data from your PC, browser data and hardware data no matter
what your VPN location/IP address is.

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Vitor said:

Check if your VPN has a browser add-in that overrides the Browser Geolocation API, some have a 'geo spoofing' and WebRTC blocking which will make you appear to be in the same City location as the VPN Server you're connected to.

Use this site to check if WebRTC is revealing the public IP address allocated by your ISP and not that of the VPN

WebRTC Leak Test: Prevent IP Address Leaks | ExpressVPN

Ah- the clue, it is browser geolocation causing the problem. Presumably never clicking on "allow" should be ok. (But probably isn't....)

Try out what I'm talking about here. Set your VPN to Paris or somewhere, find your IP address and confirm it is Paris

(Check with https://browserleaks.com/webrtc that it is not leaking your true IP - but even if it did, your location would not be very close to your house)

https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp click the first "Try it" below Locate The User's Position.

You are pinpointed to within a few metres!

I can disable it (supposedly) but this just automates the clicking on "block", it doesn't stop it gathering the information, which no doubt Microsoft/GCHQ/Google/Mozilla can extract anyway.

Looks like I need to use a more secure browser.

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HillStreetBlues said:

Is it a Sim card router?

No, but it is BT fibre, I doubt if I have a uniquely identifiable strand of fibre optic, but the ONT will be registered to me.

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Olinda99 said:

As always, it depends who wants to know your location and why 

if you don't want your mum to know where you are then you're probably safe. If you're trying to hide from law enforcement then you're not

I don't want my enemies to know where I am.

My enemies are everyone who isn't sat in the Living Room right now- but I'm not too sure about The Goldfish, he seems to stare at me a bit too much for my liking

RumRat

Just turn off Location in your browser, set to block.