> (So if you want to opt out of Google Maps and Wi-Fi Sense at the same time, you must change your SSID of, say, myhouse to myhouse_optout_nomap. Technology is great.)
I knew about the Google Maps thing, I didn't know about this. That kind of stuff is so presumptuous and user hostile it's outrageous.
I’m happy for how easy it is to do this.
The system has to be resistant against bad actors taking someone else off the map who chooses to opt in.
It would be better if the syntax were simpler, like changing myhouse to __myhouse (double underscore == private identifier).
By setting SSID a certain way, you simultaneously show your intent to opt out and prove that you're the operator.
* I'm using GPS here as shorthand for all GNSS systems (including GLONASS and Galileo).
We used to joke about making a digital sign above our office door saying "Welcome to ___" which would use the location returned by the Google AGPS service.
Maybe this has been useful when introduced, but I'm not convinced it still is the case.
People HATE HATE HATE and complain loudly at their phones if they fall back to pure A-GNSS positioning.
The "_optout_nomap" postfix atleast gives a veneer of privacy that your SSID doesn't need to be sent by every nearby device to a backend service to see if it's in the opt-out database and logged/read by some government backfeed etc.
Why not the same thing, but opt-in rather than opt-out?