Control access point inclusion in Google's Location services - Google Maps Help
support.google.com
To improve Location services and estimate the location of a device, Google uses publicly broadcast Wi-Fi information from wireless access points and GPS, cell tower, and sensor data. This data is limi

cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/51680197

Append “_nomap” to the end of your SSIDs to instruct Google not to use your wi-fi access point for their mapping services.

To do the same for Apple, add “_optout” to the end of your SSIDs¹.

To boycott both, the rumor is that Google’s “_nomap” must be last, but Apple’s “_optout” flag must be in the penultimate position if and only if Google’s token is at the end. So you might have an SSID like “boycottCloudflare_optout_nomap” to boycott the baddies, for example. But note that “boycottCloudflare” is merely symbolic, to raise awareness of the web’s most harmful enshitifier.

¹ sorry to say I have no reference to cite for the Apple rules. It’s just a rumor.

update

The Apple opt-out procedure has apparently changed to align with Google. Someone refers to this page for Apple.

update 2

Mapquest is suddenly gaining popularity.

  • daveyOsborn@infosec.pubOPEnglish
    3·
    5 days ago

    What I would expect to happen is when an AOS or iOS device falls in your range in the future, it will not report the AP to the mothership. But the motherships will still remember the history and perhaps be able to continue exploiting it. To have more certainty, I would change the MAC address on the AP if it lets you, and perhaps also change the prefix of the SSID for good measure. If your AP gives no means for changing the MAC, you could investigate replacing the firmware with openwrt – but probably not worth the effort just to change the MAC.

    When I setup an AP, I chose the same SSID as a neighbor but then added the suffix for fun… to confuse things. Then they changed their SSID (perhaps in fear that something dodgy was going on).