There are many ways to locate people’s geographical information just by looking at their IP address, but Microsoft “Locate Me” feature uses a pretty interesting and novel technique that I hadn’t heard about before.

Actually I’m pretty sure they license this database, so I shouldn’t give all the credit to Microsoft, but they user the MAC address of Wi-fi stations! This can be found by simply scanning the local area for Wi-fi transmitters, noting the current location (lat/lon) and recording the unique MAC address of the Wi-fi transmitter.

We used to live in a high-rise in Chicago and my Wi-fi transmitter location was recorded, probably by a truck driving down the street.

Later we moved to a rural subdivision and took all our stuff such as the Wi-fi transmitter - it still thought we were in Chicago, but I still thought it was pretty cool.