Other Freaky experience with Find My tonight.

[mcdj]

Just moved to Maine from Chicago yesterday.

Had an issue with the fridge in the place we’re renting. Repair guy from the management company comes by to fix it.

Nice guy. We’re chatting on and off while he’s working. I’m in and out of the kitchen.

I come back into the kitchen and he says, “Where’d you guys move from again?” I tell him Chicago. He says “Ok this is weird. My brother just texted me because he got an update on my location and he sent me this screenshot, along with “Umm, where are you???”

(I guess these brothers keep tabs on each other’s locations for whatever reason.)

Anyway, he shows me the screenshot. It‘s the repair guy’s initials on the icon, not just showing he’s in CHICAGO, but that he’s AT THE APARTMENT BUILDING WE JUST MOVED FROM. Again, we are both standing in a kitchen in Maine. His phone thinks he‘s in Chicago.

He is not on my Wi-Fi. I called his phone one time. He and my wife exchanged one text while we were still in Chicago last week. We’ve never shared location info.

How is this possible???

 

[jav6454]

That has to be a terrible coincidence. Even if by some miracle your devices linked with his somehow, your devices would relay their current location, not past location.

 

[mcdj]

That has to be a terrible coincidence. Even if by some miracle your devices linked with his somehow, your devices would relay their current location, not past location.

I would characterize it as a security glitch before I called it a coincidence.

 

[jav6454]

I would characterize it as a security glitch before I called it a coincidence.

Agreed, but even then, if the glitch did happen, your GPS coordinates on your active devices was in Maine, not Chicago. So it still makes no sense.

 

[BigBlur]

There are databases out there that keep track of the locations of Wi-Fi networks based on SSID and/or MAC address. Some devices scan nearby Wi-Fi networks to attempt to geolocate; rather than using GPS signals or cell towers, which can use more energy. I’m guessing you are using the same router and these databases haven’t been updated yet.

Here are just a couple sites than can explain it better than I can.

Why my devices get the wrong location when connected to Wi-Fi - Home Network Community

TP-Link Community

community.tp-link.com

Moved out with my router : Location services don't get it

So I moved out, carrying along my WiFi router. I set it up at my new place, but now, every time I use a location service, it recognizes my router and places me at my old address... Any way I can fo...

android.stackexchange.com

 

[jav6454]

There is/are databases out there that keep track of the router’s location based on SSID and/or MAC address. Some devices scan nearby Wi-Fi networks to attempt to geolocate, rather than using GPS signals or cell towers which can use more energy.

Here are just a couple sites than can explain it better than I can.

Why my devices get the wrong location when connected to Wi-Fi - Home Network Community

TP-Link Community

community.tp-link.com

Moved out with my router : Location services don't get it

So I moved out, carrying along my WiFi router. I set it up at my new place, but now, every time I use a location service, it recognizes my router and places me at my old address... Any way I can fo...

android.stackexchange.com

While this is true, phones also compare such data to their cell location data and will override any Wi-Fi location data with cell tower location data. This is a security feature to prevent messing with the phone's clock and tower synchronization.

 

[BigBlur]

While this is true, phones also compare such data to their cell location data and will override any Wi-Fi location data with cell tower location data. This is a security feature to prevent messing with the phone's clock and tower synchronization.

Perhaps the repair guy had a poor cell signal and couldn’t triangulate his location, so it used the nearby Wi-Fi networks as a backup.

Here’s another article that explains how Apple does it.

Moved a Wi-Fi router? That could mess with an iPhone's location

Apple uses Wi-Fi positioning for its location services and it can get mixed up when you relocate a router.

www.macworld.com

 

[TightLines]

My guess is there is something similar to DNS with the internet domain services going on and both of your devices got grouped into the same type of location pool of some sort until the official databases can be updated… my thoughts are that database is maintained by Apple and or for Apple specific devices so they can have access to all the Apple services… one thing is sure validates is that your Apple devices are being tracked (or attempted to be) and are cataloged that can be easily accessed and located. kinda like what “find my” does and you want it to do…

 

[jav6454]

Perhaps the repair guy had a poor cell signal and couldn’t triangulate his location, so it used the nearby Wi-Fi networks as a backup.

Here’s another article that explains how Apple does it.

Moved a Wi-Fi router? That could mess with an iPhone's location

Apple uses Wi-Fi positioning for its location services and it can get mixed up when you relocate a router.

www.macworld.com

That makes sense and could clear things up.

 

[K4VKS]

Wow!! I’d be speechless. I’d love to know what really caused it, but feel we might never really know.