I just a bought an iPad 1 wifi. I set up find my iPad, and it works perfectly, the blue dot centred on my flat. But how? There's no 3G, no gps, how does apple know where my wifi hotspot is? Not that I'm complaining, it's brilliant, possibly even magical - but I want to know what's up the sleeve!
iPad, iOS 4.3.2, 64gb wifi
Nothing to worry about. Many routers provide location services and clearly your router does......
Does it provide that information to anyone that asks? Could you tell where I am from this posting, or an email I sent? And come to think of it, how does my router know where it is? I guess my ISP must be involved.
Your ISP knows. They know "everything" LOL. Your ISP is connecting to a satellite and your location can be pinpointed. I don't think the average person can trace you. Be grateful it can. There are routers which are not able to trasmit locations and since you have a wifi only unit, Find Your iPhone wouldn't work, if the location can't be found....
Apple have a database of routers and their locations (they used to useSkyhook and Google for it, but it's now in-house). I've found this article about Apple's location data collection system here : http://www.pcworld.com/article/201486/apple_location_data_collection_policies_wh at_you_need_to_know.html and an Apple response to two Congressmen about Location based services here http://markey.house.gov/docs/applemarkeybarton7-12-10.pdf
Thanks for that king penguin, it's all becoming clear. Even if my ISP didn't tell anyone my location, my iPhone has connected to the same router with gps switched on, so apple now knows where it is. I wasn't concerned about the data collection, it's for a good reason in this case, I was just curious about how it works. What do you suppose would happen if I moved house, and took the router with me? Would it give the wrong location, until somebody with location services turned on connected?
How does find my iPad work without gps or 3G?
