Neostumbler has has a huge update! Better maps, higher scan interval, customizability!
It is an app to contribute to open geolocation through wifi, cell towers or bluetooth beacons. This is faster, energy efficient, resilient and can be fully anonymous.
The database is beacondb.net and can already be used!
Neostumbler can be installed via
- Accrescent
- Obtainium with the repo URL
- F-Droid
- IzzyOnDroid (same as Github releases, quicker updates)
Neostumbler now also shows the coverage map, which still has reduced accuracy.
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Is there any way to access the data from beacondb.net, or is it just a service for getting the location. That would be like OpenStreetMap only providing the tiles but not the data itself.
Openstreetmap provides the data afaik, but they are raw. Or is that only geofabrik?
BeaconDB handles pretty sensitive data. Basically movements of people and specific wifi SSIDs (names).
Currently they provide the map, and a service to load it in other clients. NeoStumbler supports that:
(Image in the post)
Full data downloads are still in the works afaik, because of the privacy implications. They probably also need to filter out GPS jamming and moving APs (trains, busses, etc.).
Check their issuetracker
OSM provides all data, including who created them and at what point in time. I see that beacondb has more sensitive data, since the users have been definitively at that time in that place, but I do not see why it should be a problem to just publish no users.
In how far is beacondb any better that Google collecting that data (except for beacondb not beeing a monopolistic company that is selling your data)? The advantage of OSM is that the data is not tied to the OpenStreetMap foundation. Whenever it collapses, users can create a new instance, since the software and the data is open and publicly available.
I am not sure about the specific issues, ask the dev :)
What kinds of things use the location services neo-stumbler contributes to? It seems like a super cool project and I have the app, but I don’t fully understand what I’m contributing to or actually improving when I used it
Like which projects make use of the services it improves, and benefit from my using the app?
The main target you can contribute to is beacondb.net.
MicroG, the FOSS replacement for Google Services on Android, can use beacondb to provide network location data.
Various geolocation and map services for Linux (can) also use beacondb.Previously, Mozilla Location Services would be used, but those have been shut down due to a bogus patent claim.
Huh, thank you so much for the answer, I appreciate it!
Go to beacondb.net, there is ongoing documentation. Currently Firefox, geoclue (Linux) and microG.
Theoretically a client app on Android could be done, as there is the option “spoof location” for some reason, which works without special system integration
Thats super cool, thanks!
