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I've just moved home (same town, another neighborhood) and took my 3 Wifi Access Points to the new home. I use the same old SSIDs.

Google Geolocation API sees those SSIDs with those MAC Addresses and thinks that I'm at the old apartment.

Everything that relies on that API without checking GPS thinks I'm there. Like Chrome on Windows with websites that use the HTML5 Geolocation API. Even Android Device Manager thinks my devices are at the old location because of the Wifi Networks.

If I turn off my Access Points it knows the right location because of the other networks around here.

It may happen with other Geolocation APIs that uses the MAC Addresses of the Wifi Networks. But I think Google's is the most popular one, right?

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  • I understand this is a very old question, but I’m curious why no one mentioned simply changing your SSID. Presumably if your “old” SSID disappears from the device perspective it should get the location accurately again, no?
    – pzkpfw
    Commented Jul 11 at 22:22

2 Answers 2

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Essentially, you can't.

You just have to wait until your wifi gets re-mapped next time the sniffer cars go by.

I spent two months 'living' in Bristol, 200 miles away, when my ISP changed the IP mappings...

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You can opt out of Google Location Service like so:

You can opt out by changing the SSID (name) of your WiFi access point (your wireless network name) so that it ends with “_nomap”. For example, if your SSID is “12345,” you would need to change it to “12345_nomap”.

After you’ve changed your SSID, you will need to re-establish a connection to the network using it's new name from any Wifi enabled devices such as your laptop or phone. If your network is secured with a password, the password should not have changed.

One way to ensure that your changed SSID is submitted to Google quickly, open Google Maps on an Android Device with WiFi enabled, and click the button to establish a location fix in the vicinity of your WiFi access point.

Hope it helps

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  • How would opting out resolve his issue? The last paragraph seems to have an answer, but could you expand on that a little more?
    – music2myear
    Commented Feb 9, 2017 at 20:42
  • Maybe if I could opt-out THEN opt-in again... I'll search about that
    – Leonel
    Commented Feb 9, 2017 at 20:50

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