> Without figuring that part of the mystery out, the only solution would be for Maxmind to change the default location for the IP address for that zip code—but that would mean some other house would have strangers seeking smartphones knocking on their door.

There is an easy solution there. Change the "default location" for that zip-code to the lat/long of the nearest Police station. At least that way, the folks 'searching' for their lost phone can arrive at the right location to file a report of a lost/stolen phone.

The problem is the reporting doesn't give a probability of confidence.

If there is only one base station in range then you cannot triangulate. In this instance the phone was last seen within 1000 feet of this house.

The problem is in the reporting to the user not the method of capture.

Like us on facebook close sorry didn't read it, treat your visitors better.

I thought this technology would use the MAC address and SSID, but not the IP address because surely most access points have WPA enabled by default now? And that these find-my-phone apps use data from the phones GPS and 802.11 wireless to build up a cross reference database. Then again, maybe most Americans do not have WPA security enabled?

At least they are using the 'hi-res' version of the MaxMind product!!! There is the 'free' version that does GeoIP to country level only, so you don't even get the local cable-head-end/ISP/TelCo box level resolution (which is what the 'paid for' version of MaxMind gives you. (Rather than centre of postcode/zip which it never resolves to in my experience).

I have had this problem building a store locator before now, where, due to the 'lite' database every customer in the UK was shown some store in Birmingham as their 'nearest'...

Previous discussion on an older article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10947023

I see a couple workarounds to their problem.

1. They could stop broadcasting their network's SSID.

2. They could change their SSID and spoof a different MAC address every day. Their ISP sent them a new router, but I imagine that will be sucked up into the databases quickly and the same problem will happen.

3. They could put routers in the surrounding homes so their home is never the one selected.

The audio podcast upon which the article is based is very good, which is not to knock the article: https://soundcloud.com/replyall/53-in-the-desert