In this article I will explain you how to manage location permission for a website or a webapp and how to control its being tracked.
What are the ways for website to identify your location
IP Address: Your location can be identified using your IP Address but it may not provide accurate location of the user. Whenever you are connected to internet your internet provider will assign you a IP address (it can be either IPv4 or IPv6). Each group IP addresses will point to a Latitude and Longitude point. If you want to know your IP address simply search for “show my IP Address” in google, you will get your IP address. There are multiple ways to decode the latitude and longitude points into location details. One such service to decode IP address to Location details is KeyCDN. By default if you access any website your IP address will be known to the server and you can’t hide your IP address but alternatively one can use VPN (Virtual Private Network) .
Requesting Location Information: Whenever a website want to know exact location of a user then website will prompt location permission to you and if you approve the location request then latitude and longitude information will be fetched by your device’s GPS and it will be shared to the website. But it is upto you to decide whether you need to allow the website to access your location or deny the website from accessing the location.
Chrome take most care on user’s privacy in terms of data sharing, so without your permission Chrome never share your location information to any website and it is complete the user need to decide whether to allow or deny the location access request. If you are accessing website for shopping then the shopping site may ask your location details in order to check whether your location served by them or not, in such case you can allow the website to access your location if you feel the website is trusted. In another scenario if you want to know “my location” then in that case the website will require your Location details in order to show your exact location on map or location details such as address, street name, city, county, zip code etc. If you are unaware how your location information is being used, then you can read the website’s privacy policy document before you allow the website to access the location.
Chrome Answer on Location Permission
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