I tried some quick packet sniffing browsing Google and did not see my MAC transmitted—as I’d expect (bc like you said, ARP not thing at this layer) also research on “MAC included in http metadata” turns up no results…
If you have any more info on this I’d love to learn more—as I’m puzzled to know why this would happen?
I believe they also track and log other Wifi networks that you arnt even connected to.
I'm sure they gather all sort of other metrics from any sensors and signals they can access.
It is way before HTTP even happens. This data is collected while you are driving around, walking down the street, etc.
If you want coarse location to work but don't want Google to know it, try microG with a non-Google location provider (I use Apple and Mozilla and it's pretty good).
> Google's location service improves location accuracy > by using Wi-Fi, mobile networks, and sensors to help > estimate your location. Google may collect location > data periodically and use this data in an anonymous > way to improve location accuracy and location-based > services. > > Turning this off will result in your device only using GPS > for location. This may impact the accuracy of location > used by apps such as Maps and Find My Device.
Based on that description, that should turn off the data collection, although it can also make GPS fixes take longer, and there may well be other apps collecting this data as well.
They get it from your GPS on your android sending the mac address with your location to google servers.
And then later your TV sending the same mac address to google and asking "what's my location?".
Google associates your TV's request with your phones data using the mac address. And then the browser communicates with your OS using the location service API, a virtual GPS on your TV that only uses MAC address and google's server, to get the result.
Software typically obtains BSSIDs from your mobile OS’s wi-fi frameworks.
The BSSID looks like a MAC address, and in many but not all cases, a given AP’s wireless network BSSID is within a byte or two of its actual wi-if radio MAC.
Google and Apple maintain their own massive geolocation databases of BSSIDs, signal strength, and latitude/longitude.
Google Maps still thought I was living in my old address. My phone was stuck on the old location for days iirc.
For example, I receive quite a few devices for reviews, and I mostly give things away after using those. Many years ago, I gave a friend in another city a router. For a few weeks his computer and other devices reported his location as being my city instead of his. It took a couple of weeks for Google services to catch up.
Google logs your current location and the MAC address of any access point visible to your phone. In your case, if you used your phone via the VPN for more than a few hours, Google associates that MAC address with the finer location from your phone's GPS. It may not link that data to your account, but it uses it to help getting a GPS location.
If you live in a location with low traffic/human density then it may take longer for Google to change it back.
This information is also used for a GPS cold start. Actual GPS takes a few moments to get a fix, even more if indoors. A GPS get a fix faster if you are using it close to where it was last used, or how fresh the stored almanac data is, otherwise it may not find expected satellites in certain locations in the sky. While a fix is not available phone GPS uses any visible MAC address to determine its coarse location.
On laptops and desktops with no GPS, browsers will use this access point data to set a location - IP addresses databases are not up to date enough and sometimes they are linked to the ISP office address and not to specific towns and cities and certainly not to a specific address.