14 DAY TRIAL // Google is making good on its promise to enable any router owner to opt-out of Google's location services. Specifically, anyone with a router can now 'tell' Google that they don't want their WiFi routers to be used to determine location by Android phones and the like.
Google said it would make the change a couple of months ago and has now detailed exactly how owners can opt-out. For better of for worse, it's not exactly the most technical solution.
To make sure that your router's location won't be used, in the future, by Google services all you need to do is change your router's SSID, the name that it broadcasts to anyone wanting to connect to the network.
Adding "_nomap" to the end of the SSID, for example going from something like "Homenetwork" to "Homenetwork_nomap," will signal to Google, and to other location data providers if they decide to adopt the measure, that the router's location is not to be used.
Of course, anyone within range of your WiFi router will be able to see the new name, making it a rather public opt-out for something that's designed to protect privacy.
Well, it's actually designed to protect Google from getting sued in Europe over the entire Street View WiFi fiasco. All that Google, and all other location data providers, use is the name of the router and its GPS-determined location.
The name is already public and unless you choose to christen your network after yourself or somehow include personal data in the name, there's no real privacy concern involved in the matter.
One issue that could arise is that most people don't even know what a router is, let alone how to change the SSID. And it's probably exactly these people that are going to be 'worried' about the privacy issues surrounding location-data services.