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[tickmike]

I downloaded and burnt a PCLinuxOS 64 Bit Live CD, then ran a Live CD in my laptop and one of the things I tried was Firefox did a bit of a search and then I was getting adverts and services for my local City 10miles away.
As I had a virgin distro with no data at all put in how the #~* did the search engine know it was me and where I live ?.   

[roseway]

Your IP address, I guess. Google will just link that to the mass of data it's already collected about you.

[loonylion]

IP Geolocation as Roseway said. It's not always that accurate though, mine says i'm in Sheffield.

[roseway]

No doubt Google already have a large file of information related to internet activity from that IP address, so it won't be just geolocation.

[tickmike]

Yes that's what I thought it was as I have fixed IP set from my ISP.

So can other people get that info as some adverts said 'I see you are nearby' 

[loonylion]

if they're not google adverts its almost definitely ip geolocation.

[roseway]

Any website you visit can see your IP address (it has to know this, in order to know where to send the web page you requested). There are several public geolocation finders, although they're often inaccurate. See http://www.iplocation.net/

[tickmike]

The first two are 200 miles out My 'ISP head office', but the other two are nearly spot on   

[Alex Atkin UK]

I assume you don't have a domain assigned to your static IP address?  That would certainly be one way it could determine your exact address.  Otherwise I'm not sure, its not like an ISP would bother to tie a static IP to a specific address, in fact that would be in breach of data protection if enabled other people to find out your exact address.

[tickmike]

I assume you don't have a domain assigned to your static IP address?  That would certainly be one way it could determine your exact address.  Otherwise I'm not sure, its not like an ISP would bother to tie a static IP to a specific address, in fact that would be in breach of data protection if enabled other people to find out your exact address.

I do have a domain registered on one of them but it's not in use yet.