wrong geotagging because of mifi

[sergeyr]

On several occasions I was getting wrong geotagging because the card picked up someone's mifi and wifi hotspots in planes/trains/busses.
As a suggestion, maybe geotagging mechanism can ignore those networks. They should be identifiable by SID (gogo for inflight) or MAC (for mifi's).

Thoughts?

[johndaly]

I'm not sure you have the right reason here. I don't think Skyhooks database includes the location of mobile devices. The problem I have found is that people move house and take their modem/router with them. However, it is still registered at Skyhook at the old location. In our village I took a photo and it was geotagged some 400 miles away preusmably because the people at the house nearby had recently moved to the village. I now know where they came from!!

[sergeyr]

I am pretty sure it was mifi.
I took some photos around lake Tahoe, pretty remote area. No wifi networks. To my surprise, some of them showed up with geotag. When I checked it, the location was one of my friends' favourite coffee shop where she often works using her mifi. Apparently she left mifi on during trip to Tahoe and it got picked up.

In another example photo of Mt Shasta from the plane window got tagged as "MSP airport" - the plane was equipped with gogo internet service...

[MikeV]

Skyhook's database can include ANY WiFi network, mobile or not.

Devices that use Skyhook's service also have the ability to automatically add new wireless networks and change existing ones based on what is detected around them.

Skyhook doesn't know what is or isn't a MiFi. I suppose they could implement some kind of MAC filtering to keep certain MAC addresses from being added to the database, but that would need to be taken up with Skyhook and not Eye-Fi.

[hyachts]

I am pretty sure it was mifi.
I took some photos around lake Tahoe, pretty remote area. No wifi networks. To my surprise, some of them showed up with geotag. When I checked it, the location was one of my friends' favourite coffee shop where she often works using her mifi. Apparently she left mifi on during trip to Tahoe and it got picked up.

In another example photo of Mt Shasta from the plane window got tagged as "MSP airport" - the plane was equipped with gogo internet service...

You're definitely right about what happened, and I agree that there ought to be a way to filter AP's that are, by their nature, mobile. Perhaps you should suggest to Skyhook that they contact some major mobile hotspot manufacturers and blacklist them:
http://www.skyhookwireless.com/whoweare/contact.php

[hyachts]

I suppose they could implement some kind of MAC filtering to keep certain MAC addresses from being added to the database, but that would need to be taken up with Skyhook and not Eye-Fi.

I agree that there ought to be a way to filter AP's that are, by their nature, mobile. Perhaps you should suggest to Skyhook that they contact some major mobile hotspot manufacturers and blacklist them:
http://www.skyhookwireless.com/whoweare/contact.php

Great idea, Mike