Why does my Facebook think I am in Fresno when I am in the Bay Area?
December 10, 2020 7:11 PM Subscribe
Why does Facebook think I am in Fresno when I am in the Bay Area?
When I view Security and Login on Facebook, it says that the device I am on is in Fresno. I am, however, in the Bay Area. This is on Safari. Any explanations as to why?
When I view Security and Login on Facebook, it says that the device I am on is in Fresno. I am, however, in the Bay Area. This is on Safari. Any explanations as to why?
Response by poster: @brainmouse - I rebooted and that site said I was in Redding, California. I rebooted again and the site now says I’m in Berkeley, which is closer. Facebook still thinks I’m in Fresno though.
posted by gt2 at 7:30 PM on December 10, 2020
posted by gt2 at 7:30 PM on December 10, 2020
Even without VPN, as brainmouse said, geolocation using IP address can be quite inaccurate. Unless it's causing some specific problem, I would ignore it.
posted by primethyme at 7:50 PM on December 10, 2020
posted by primethyme at 7:50 PM on December 10, 2020
We live in Ottawa and our ISP is headquartered in Toronto and the internet often thinks we live in Toronto.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:57 AM on December 11, 2020
posted by heatherlogan at 6:57 AM on December 11, 2020
As brainmouse hinted; Facebook is falling back to using your IP address' location. These are notoriously inaccurate. Often it's the address of your ISP's home office. Or the address of whatever company owned that IP block a year ago. Sometimes it will even be the wrong country, which causes problems for sites like Netflix which block based on what country they think you're in.
Your rebooting may be causing you to get a different IP address each time (either because of a VPN or, less likely, DHCP via your ISP). Which is why the location looks different.
If you want to "fix" it, the expedient way is to let Facebook ask your web browser what your location is. You probably turned that off the first time Facebook asked and forgot about it, so you'll have to undo that choice in privacy settings. Your web browser has other was of knowing where you are than your IP address and is probably more accurate. Note that giving Facebook access to your location like this has privacy implications.
posted by Nelson at 7:39 AM on December 11, 2020
Your rebooting may be causing you to get a different IP address each time (either because of a VPN or, less likely, DHCP via your ISP). Which is why the location looks different.
If you want to "fix" it, the expedient way is to let Facebook ask your web browser what your location is. You probably turned that off the first time Facebook asked and forgot about it, so you'll have to undo that choice in privacy settings. Your web browser has other was of knowing where you are than your IP address and is probably more accurate. Note that giving Facebook access to your location like this has privacy implications.
posted by Nelson at 7:39 AM on December 11, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by brainmouse at 7:16 PM on December 10, 2020