this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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beaconDB is an open, and privacy-friendly network location service, replacing Mozilla's defunct location service (beacondb.net)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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beaconDB is a drop-in replacement for MLS, which uses the same format request that's used by Mozilla's Ichnaea.

The source code is available on Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/beacondb/beacondb

You can contribute to the project by using an app like NeoStumbler (GitHub) or Tower Collector (GitHub) to submit location reports. NeoStumbler does Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GSM, while Tower Collector can only do GSM cell towers. Both are FOSS and available on F-Droid.

It is also recommended by the GrapheneOS project: https://grapheneos.social/@GrapheneOS/112759509558471713

https://grapheneos.org/articles/positon-location-service

Just keep in mind that it's still in relatively early development, which is why it really needs contributions.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Ideally there's not a whole lot of data that needs to be kept.

Legitimately all that needs to be stored is a few things:

  • Location (GPS)
  • SSIDs (Wifi APs only)
  • Cell ID & MCC/MNC (Cell Towers only)

and things they MUST NOT STORE OR SHARE like:

  • IPs of contributors for longer than a few days
  • un-hashed BSSIDs (Wifi/BT)
  • MAC addresses (Wifi/BT)
  • IMEI/IMSIs (or other cellular identifiers derived from them)
  • APs that don't exist in a fixed location (Think mobile hotspot SSIDs) for longer than a fixed amount of time.
  • BT devices
  • Non-unique SSIDs or IDs that may indicate no user config took place and manufacturer did not differentiate device ID. (Things like "SETUP" with no unique number (SSIDs like"SETUP-be3fd34d" would be valid) or "[ISP]@HOME" or "[ISP]Wifi" which provide no meaningful discriminators)