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Geolocation - is it rubbish

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Weaver:
Having looked some of my own IPv4 addresses up using quite a few different geo-location services the results do seem to be a complete load of old crap, never even getting to the right location for my ISP, let alone getting to me myself. Hollywood doesn't seem to want to accept such a pessimistic view. How is this ever supposed to work? I mean I can understand there might be a chance of getting ISPs correct, if some volunteers the information - how is that supposed to work? But going beyond that, down to the level of the individual user, surely no-chance? And in my case I have static IP addresses, so how Hollywood thinks it is going to get instantly down to the level of an individual user in the face of ISPs' dynamic allocation I simply can't imagine.

Favourites for me are “Southend” or some place called “Arnold” in Nottinghamshire. Scotland? No chance.

NEXUS2345:
It all very much depends on the ISP. Zen show me as being in London (I am actually in Sheffield), however when I have traced some Canadians, I have found that their ISP has geolocated them to within a couple hundred metres. It very much depends on the ISP, not the idea.

displaced:
It does give an interesting look at how your ISP operates.

When I was with BT, I was always shown as within 6 or so miles of my actual location (Gravesend). Sometimes Gravesend itself, sometimes neighbouring Northfleet or Ebbsfleet, and occasionally just across the river (shudder) in Thurrock or Tilsbury.

Now I'm on Vodafone, I tour the country with every new PPPoE login.  Currently, I'm shown as being in Sutton (!?).

Weaver:
So does this mean that your ISPs are selling you for money? It must be difficult to keep up to date with all the changes with dynamic IPs?

sevenlayermuddle:
I suspect it is largely attributable to Android smartphones, and Google privacy terms. 

Whenever a naive android owner (with 'default' settings) switches on his phone, it tells google the precise location from GPS.   It also tells Google the SSID and Mac of any WiFi APs within range, which Google then log with the GPS coords.   If the phone is actually connected to WiFi, Google can get the IP address and so make a very good guess at geo-locating it, even better if it belongs to an ISP that uses static IPs (which of course is easy to tell).  Google would then be missing a trick if the did not sell all that data.

Apple play similar tricks of course but, since they make their $billions mainly from hardware sales, I don't think they are quite as devious.

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