Ask HN: Less Evil Alternative to MaxMind GeoIP Db? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Less Evil Alternative to MaxMind GeoIP Db?

15 pointssethito10 comments

I've been using the geoip db from MaxMind for over a decade now; however, I've noticed the accuracy of both the free and paid dbs have fallen to unacceptable levels. I also recently learned that it is against their aup to build publicly facing systems based on their data (https://www.maxmind.com/en/sitelicense).

Are there any accurate alternatives that don't use MaxMind's free db?

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I can understand the policy and I'm not sure it makes them evil. You could build a publicly facing system that was simply an API into their database, thus providing the public with the data you licensed.

This site will let you download their geolocation database .. http://software77.net/geo-ip/

License info: http://software77.net/geo-ip/?license

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_geolocation.asp

That works great until the user pushes "No, I don't want you go geolocate me".

If the user doesn't want to be geolocated, why are you going to geolocate them?

Basic web stats reports. Checking that you're getting the geotargeting you paid for when you advertise. Preventing credit card fraud (billing address in one country, user located in another, detecting open proxies, etc). Lots of reasons geolocation has been used since long before browsers had a mobile-style API for it on the client side.

And if the user withdraws their consent (clicking "No", DNT headers, etc.) that should be the end of it. Don't locate, don't track, don't subvert user's consent.

Just flag it as "no location information available" if you need to use it for an access control/fraud prevention mechanism and be aware that determined bad guys can spoof almost every signal you receive from them.

I have had good success with NeuStar.

What are the costs associated with that?

They were about the same cost or slightly more than the MaxMind paid version.

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