GeoIP database issues and the real world consequences

[johnl at iecc.com (John Levine)]

>The problem with MaxMind (and other geoip databases I've seen that do Lat/Long as well as Country / State / Town) is that the
>data doesn't include uncertainty, so it returns "38.0/-97.0" rather than "somewhere in a 3000 mile radius circle centered on
>38.0/-97.0".
>
>Someone should show them RFC 1876 as an example of better practice.

Oh, heck, you know better than that.  You can put in all the flags and
warnings you want, but if it returns an address, nitwits will show up
at the address with guns.

Bodies of water probably are the least bad alternative.  I wonder if
they're going to hydrolocate all of the unknown addresses, or only the
ones where they get publically shamed.

R's,
John