Mozilla Labs presents the following scenario: When you open the Firefox browser, it knows where you are and immediately opens websites for nearby restaurants, stores and other attractions. Mozilla developers have already integrated this feature, as the Geode plug-in, in the current beta version of Firefox 3.1. It is based on proprietary software from a company called Skyhook.

Geode collects the MAC addresses from access points in a city like Yonkers in a database. Because these addresses rarely change, the Skyhook Wireless XPS software uses this data (along with GPS and cell tower data) to acquire the user's location. As the user joins the Internet per VLAN, the software scans the MAC addresses of all the access points in the area and, if successful, locates the user and gives his position to a querying website. Users can also feed their position and access point data manually to the database.

The collected data lands in Skyhook's WiFi database, which is not publicly accessible. As the Skyhook FAQ states, "In developing this system, we have invested a significant amount of time and money." This also seems why the feature doesn't work with Linux. The Skyhook libraries aren't available for Linux and it's questionable that they will ever run under a free OS.

Some questions are definitely being asked. Among them, why does Firefox possibly want to integrate a product that questions the openness of the software? Is the browser on its way to being proprietary software, considering the recent EULA controversy? Even more importantly, do Firefox users, irrespective of OS, really want to give away their exact location to websites? With Skyhook's claim of accuracy to within 10 or 20 meters, this virtually allows a user's private home address to be passed on.