Show HN: Tracing You, a website that tries to “see” where its visitors are

http://tracingyou.bengrosser.com

by forgetcolor • 10 years ago

65 16 10 years ago

tracingyou.bengrosser.com

gruez• 10 years ago

So how does this work? I'm guessing it uses some sort of geoip database, but those are usually specific to an ISP, so you'll end up visitors from the same local ISP show up on the same location. I'm guessing they add a random (deterministic) bit of noise to each IP to mix things up a bit.

keithpeter• 10 years ago

I got Amsterdam (presumably the RIPE routing) and a quick flash of Birmingham UK but the city centre rather than the bit I live in a few miles out. Then lots of US locations so presumably the images are changing as other users access the page.

Outdoorsman• 10 years ago

When the page loaded for me my IP and a street view 13 miles away from me loaded in the upper left hand panel...

Read later that it updates with each visitor...

Ezhik• 10 years ago

It actually flashed my city, that's cool. Now I'm kinda interested to see all the webcams that are the closest to me.

myztic3• 10 years ago

Sites like that (without flashy Street View pictures bound to be wrong anyways) have been around for a very long time, many are provided by VPN providers to let their customers check how good they are hidden. It simply showed Amsterdam for me, which is my current VPN-Server, so no surprises there. What I mostly use to check such things https://ipleak.net/

What he does is only getting the location information and simply cross-referencing it with Google Street View / Google Maps Data. That being said: It's an art installation http://bengrosser.com/projects/tracing-you/ to provoke questions about privacy in a more closely connected world than ever. Noble idea.

"First it looks up the IP address using ipinfo to obtain geolocation. This is represented as a latitude/longitude pair (e.g. 48.8631831,2.3629368) that identifies a precise location on the earth. The latitude/longitude is sent to Google, where it queries the Street View, Static Maps, and Javascript Maps data services."

Not too impressive though.

myztic3• 10 years ago

One more thought: I seriously hope the artist clarifies the shortcomings of his approach when presenting it! It wouldn't be right to suggest to people that the locations are highly accurate.

I can imagine a non-technical relative/friend of mine seeing such an installation, then telling me that you can track down every internet user accurately and even show the building he is living in and me having to explain why that is not the case and a ridiculous notion.

No matter how noble the cause, deception is wrong. After all, I don't tell my kids their heads may explode if they take illegal drugs...

snowden9998• 10 years ago

Nobody is being deceptive. From the "about" link on the site:

"... Sometimes what this image shows is eerily accurate; other times it is wildly dislocated. ... How accurate are the system’s data sources and when might they improve?"

And more from the artist's page about the project:

"... How close it gets is very much dependent on how networks are built, configured, operated, and distributed where you are, which network you use, and the accuracy of the data associated with those networks."

bigiain• 10 years ago

It can be more accurate - although modern browsers require you to grant location access permission.

Pasting this into the javascript console of a browser (just tested in Chrome and Safari):

navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(pos){console.log(pos)})

Then feeding the latitude and longitude into Streetview it gives me (after granting location permission) the front door of the building next door.

Note that if you can come up with a convincing explanation for why an unsuspecting user should click the location request popup, this'll defeat the VPN as a means of hiding your location... "Click here and allow location access to see hot girls ready to meet in your area!"

ck2• 10 years ago

It make take several decades but one day google maps satellite view is going to be live/realtime.

hamhamed• 10 years ago

These aren't webcams (as some of the comments mention that)

My best guess would be using a geoIP to detect the user's city and then using Google Map's street view from that city and showcase it for a couple of seconds. The webmaster would have more accurate data if he had asked for HTML5 geo location permission.

rocky1138• 10 years ago

For me in Waterloo, Canada it showed a picture of Richmond Hill, which is 118km away. I'm fine with that :)

wingerlang• 10 years ago

So the images are the _other_ visitors? I guess then it did find me as it showed my city that one time. Now it's only US/DE showing up.

mkj• 10 years ago

This would be cool picture-in-picture at the bottom corner of a busy site. Useful if it had an estimation of accuracy printed too (assume the API gives that?)

8note• 10 years ago

I'm on my phone data, and if puts me on the east coast instead of the west

Show HN: Tracing You, a website that tries to “see” where its visitors are

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