BT Smarthub3 Router Privacy Issue

flaneurs_lobster

What you don't say is whether on a virgin session with all cookies nuked what IP location does Google say you are in if you do a "local search" as described in posts above.

Not going to happen, too much stuff running on my devices that is only too happy to tell all and sundry where I am located.

Helps the Uber drivers come to the right house and the TV to stream the local BBC news.

monious

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104571#Comment_82104571

Exactly, so none of that provides the IP address unless the that person successfully logs in, MAC addresses are hardware addresses that can be changed. For my IP address to have the accurate location it would need to marry data that is not connected in your scenario.

QrizB

You can certainly call me out on being confused or mistaken or if I am not clear.

IF the problem is "kit at their exchange" THEN changing your router will have no effect.

What's probably happening, as has been explained several times in this thread, is that the BT IP address assigned to your connection is one with a geolocation close to you, rather than with your previous ISP where it was a shared IP address in a datacentre miles and miles away.

For example, here's what https://iplocation.io/ says about my current IP address:

What does that site have to say about yours?

booneruk

there is no field that stores the location or config option for location or location hardware such as you might have in a phone

There's also no field storing the location in a phone. How would that even work? What if I sold my phone to a punter on ebay, is it still wired into my 'location'?

If you think an ISP pushes your location to your mobile phone and then the mobile phone pushes that location to websites that's a misunderstanding. The only thing going on here is IP location lookups, the exact same thing I said has been in place for decades in a previous post

 It is being given an IP address from a pool, something in the configuration of kit in the Exchange has provided the Exchange address.

Which is what any device connecting to the internet does. Your router, your phone. The way it's been for years

So it IS my router, it really is and BT have confirmed that, so it seems that in reality the only confusion is you.

I'm not confused. Have you never had a support technician give you false information before, either through incompetence or just to 'shut you up and get you off the call'?

Why people like you who have nothing helpful to add chime in I do not know

I'm trying to be helpful.. IP Location is a thing, changing ISP or router won't change that. You'll still have an IP address assigned from the ISPs IP blocks and that IP will still resolve to a location. It might be fairly accurate to your current location, it may not be.

maybe you are collecting likes

Could you like this post please? pretty please?

HillStreetBlues

Why don't you find someone would will swap their router with you? That would confuse everyone as then you would have each others address.

monious

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104610#Comment_82104610

I am only quoting the advice BT gave me after this matter was escalated and they brought several BT technical managers into the call.

Usually your description is exactly what would happen and I would agree with you, that such sites would quote a location, different sites offering such services sometimes provide different information, but none of them quote my town or postcode.

Google on the other hand is obtaining the information, it does not matter if I turn off the router and make the IP address change and start over on a virgin session on a virgin device.

BT said that the router has some data it gets from the exchange that is passed on but there is no user serviceable access to either change that or stop the behaviour. They said I had to use to 3rd party router to stop it.

I do not see why I should have a substandard router because BT is sharing my location. So my plan is to

Start complaint with ICO after BT Complies with my Subject Access Request.

Start a complaint with BT confirming what they said in the call and giving them 30 days solve the problem at their end or else I will buy an equivalent 3rd party router based on their advice and I will be seeking reimbursement for the cost of that router.

I am not going to publish the results of a website that shares my location as I value my privacy.

monious

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104633#Comment_82104633

That is an interesting idea, albeit that I imagine we would have to get down n dirty with the config, if it even worked

QrizB

Google on the other hand is obtaining the information, it does not matter if I turn off the router and make the IP address change and start over on a virgin session on a virgin device.

Do you have Virgin broadband as well as BT? Or are you using mobile broadband for this? I'm not seeing how you can "start over on a virgin session on a virgin device" without using a BT exit point otherwise.

forgotmyname

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82103626#Comment_82103626

I do not use my real name on anything online except my banking apps, even my ebay and paypal accounts use 2 different versions of my name.
eg. Pete on one and Peter on the other (that is not my name also). All the tracking and a lot of Google services that I will never use
or do not want to share my data is removed or diabled.

Really puzzled me how it got my name. The only thing I can think is that I may have paid for an app once whilst on holiday and
it may have grabbed it from that transaction?

Next time I need another email address not linked to any current phone or internet. Until then I do not think there is anything
I can do?

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82104531#Comment_82104531

All routers ask the ISP systems for an IP address, a router cannot work without one.

Who were you with before BT? My guess is your previous ISP, like mine, gave the same IP to multiple users and therefore the DBs that contain the geocoding for each IP covers a broader area. BT gives each connection a unique IP and each IP is locked to an single exchange and so whilst resetting the connection will give you another IP as they are dynamically assigned, they cover a fairly small geographical area meaning IP geolocation is more accurate