WTF ! I just clicked on my user name & then "From Here " To my horror it went straight to Google maps !!! I am Nowhere near there, but that's not the point. It could locate other members = NOT GOOD ! Why is this "feature" even enabled ?
If you stop for a moment and look at what this is doing, you'll see that all that option does is look up in Google Maps whatever "word" a member has put into their profile's "Location" field. That's all. I have "New England" in my Location, so, when you click on that, you are given a map showing the north eastern US with New England centered. If you put "London, England" - that is the city map it'll show. It's just a minor XenForo feature. The fact that it's a link to Google Maps is not at all a privacy issue. It's a convenience only, since people don't have to actually copy/paste the location field of a member's profile into Google Maps manually. If people want privacy from others seeing their location, the fix is not to remove that simplistic link. It's "don't put your real location in your profile." Or, do like me and put in a state, region or country, only.
@ LowWaterMark I didn't put "London, England" in there, only HERE ! I don't agree. To stay logged in here i have to enable Cookies, plus to quote etc in posts/threads we have enable JavaScript. So just clicking that "HERE" link means Google instantly gets Lots of data from our browsers etc & IP address, & we get a cookie. I & many others on here choose not to use Google, or directly anyway, as we want to avoid such stuff etc from them. I think maybe my putting location=Here confuses Google. Not sure why it shows London though, possibly the HQ of my ISP ?
Any of those things you enable for this site, i.e. cookies, Javascript, etc. - are site specific settings in the browser. (I assume you enable only by site, and don't globally enable cookies and Javascript for all sites. Right?) So, having those enabled here does not give Google access to them. If Google could access your wilderssecurity.com cookies and script permissions, then that would be a serious flaw in the browser's internal security. As for what "here" means. That's all GeoIP based in Google Maps. When I click your profile's "here" link, it doesn't show the London area for me. It shows the center of the state I live in here in USA. "Here" is relative (and therefore different) for all of us. It literally means - the central location where the IP address range is served from. So anyone clicking on your "here" will get to see what Google Geo Location shows for them and their own current IP address.
@ LowWaterMark Hi, yes you're correct about MY only allowing www specific scripting. I had NO idea that HERE was a link @ all, never mind to google maps. So yesterday when i realised it was a link, out of curiosity i clicked on it. I guess i just freaked out & over reacted & posted quickly to warn others too. Thanx for the explanation, have one on me, & i'll take more med
CloneRanger, do you not use on-the-fly site preferences? Try a spoof: Shows me in the USA. I'm not. 1 Point about it all. If you click that link and allow it to work, Google will add your IP at this board to the profile they hold on your IP already..
Sorry i missed replying earlier @ Kobayashi maru Radar Love = Great tune Good point about the G cookie @ noone_particular Yeah, that would do it
Personally I'd disable it for 3 reasons. The convenience is next to nothing, not everyone has cookies and JS disabled, and promoting Google is just wrong.
i want nothing to do with google. they went from "do no evil" to "you didn't really think you had any privacy on the internet did you? hahahaha" (and besides, we's gonna make a couple billion$$$ $elling you out)
