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Don’t like Google maps renaming “Lake Ontario” → “Lake America”? Show your objection by changing your SSID (support.google.com)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by to c/degoogle@discuss.tchncs.de
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cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/51680197

Append “_nomap” to the end of your SSIDs to instruct Google not to use your wi-fi access point for their mapping services.

To do the same for Apple, add “_optout” to the end of your SSIDs¹.

To boycott both, the rumor is that Google’s “_nomap” must be last, but Apple’s “_optout” flag must be in the penultimate position if and only if Google’s token is at the end. So you might have an SSID like “boycottCloudflare_optout_nomap” to boycott the baddies, for example. But note that “boycottCloudflare” is merely symbolic, to raise awareness of the web’s most harmful enshitifier.

¹ sorry to say I have no reference to cite for the Apple rules. It’s just a rumor.

update

The Apple opt-out procedure has apparently changed to align with Google. Someone refers to this page for Apple.

update 2

Mapquest is suddenly gaining popularity.

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[–] 5 points 1 month ago (3 children)

You're not wrong, but in this one instance you're not entirely right, either. If your SSID is set to broadcast then you're sending it out there for anyone to see and use however they see fit. You're basically opting in by that alone. The fact that most WIFI routers are set to broadcast by default and most users have no idea how to change it is another argument entirely.

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  • [–] [S] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

    Apple seems to say hiding your SSID will not protect you:

    “This opt-out doesn't work for hidden networks because they make their network name available only to known devices, so other devices can't detect "_nomap."”

    So IIUC, if you hide your SSID and an Apple spy (read: normal iOS user) connects to it, their device will ignore the _nomap token and report your AP to the mothership. And note as well that a hidden SSID only makes your AP invisible in the absence of traffic. iOS devices can probably see and process traffic that happens to be in motion when they are in range.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    If a SSID is set to hidden, clients in that network will broadcast the name of the network, so it's usually not hidden at all. I don't buy the argument that broadcasting the SSID means to allow opting in to anything.

    https://wifi.report/blog/hidden-ssids-security-myth-vs-reality.html

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 1 month ago*

    Saw this in the article:

    This is the biggest drawback of hidden SSIDs. When a network is hidden, your phone or laptop has to constantly shout, "Are you there, [Hidden Home Network]?" everywhere you go.

    There is a paper that describes how an iOS device listens to everyone else’s phones as they broadcast all the SSIDs they connect to (regardless of where the two phones intersect). It gave the impression that phones also reveal non-hidden SSIDs when looking to connect, as it’s uncommon for people to have hidden SSIDs.

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