is Firefox giving my location to Google?

Firefox will always ask for permission before using Geolocation. You can see the setting for the current tab in "Tools > Page Info > Permissions". If Geolocation isn't used then websites can do a reverse DNS look up of your IP address and that is usually not very accurate.

• http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/geolocation/

When you use desktop Firefox, and a site asks to receive geolocation data, Firefox prompts you as to whether you want to share your location. If you never want Firefox to share your location with Google, while you are on Google (e.g., their home page or search results page), you can change a setting on the Permissions panel of the Page Info dialog.

You can call that up using any of these:

• right-click (or on Mac: Ctrl+click) a blank area of the page and choose View Page Info > Permissions
• (menu bar) Tools menu > Page Info > Permissions
• click the padlock or "i" icon to the left of the site address, then the ">" icon, then More Information > Permissions

Near the top, you'll find "Access Your Location" and you can uncheck the "Use default" box and select the permission you prefer.

Please note that even if Firefox doesn't share detailed location data, websites still learn your computer's IP address because otherwise there's no way to return content to you. If you want to disguise your IP address, you could consider subscribing to a trustworthy private VPN service.

I'm concerned because my location data suddenly got more accurate.

You can use websites like these to see how your location is reported via a reverse DNS look up of your IP:

• http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/network-location/
• http://whatismyipaddress.com/

And now its become QUITE precise. WTF is going on? My IP address has always been geolocated as my IP's regional location, which is quite far away. But suddenly, today, google has "zeroed in" on me. I don't like this at all.

I just tried to enter Firefoxe's about.config screen and ITS NOT WORKING. I'm getting a "domain not found" error

http://www.ubergizmo.com/how-to/disable-google-location/

Disable Location Tracking in Firefox

Type “about:config” in the search bar and hit enter. On the next page, type “geo.enabled” in the search bar and below you will see the option of “geo.enabled”.

The Search Guide Service has been enabled to provide helpful searches from web address errors. You entered an unknown name that the service used to present site suggestions which you may find useful

Firefox will always ask for permission before using Geolocation. You can see the setting for the current tab in "Tools > Page Info > Permissions". >

Blocked Google but still showing that precise location at the bottom of the page. Its always been the IP regional location. I asked this question because I noticed it was much closer, and then later that day it changed to become even closer.

Two notes:

(1) You could try clearing cookies, but Google or other geo information providers may have associated detailed information with your IP address now so that might not have any effect.

(2) There is a colon between about and config (about:config) not a period.

Please tell us if that is with a desktop computer, which would be connected to the internet thru a modem or router then a modem.

Or if that is a laptop, and you are using a wireless connection - IOW, WiFi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geolocation_software

"Location" based upon a fixed modem connection via a "network" cable (IOW, a desktop "plugged in" to the internet) would be based upon the IP Address that is assigned by your internet service provider (ISP) to your account; dial-up differs, I refer to broadband, both cable and DSL. That information about your "location" relative to the IP Address that is assigned to your ISP account is shared with many services "for a fee" that is paid to your ISP. They're "selling you out" on top of the exorbitant fees that they charge you!

But I don't think that info will "pinpoint" your physical location: my Comcast "location" is at best within 3 blocks of my physical location. And over the 15 years I have had my internet account (first thru AT&T Multimedia , which was the "old AT&T", then thru Comcast which bought out AT&T Multimedia internet services) I have watched as my "location" has drifted from the next community east of me (2 miles away) towards where is shows me now 3 blocks away. As the local area internet infrastructure was upgraded in stages I saw the "pin" get closer and closer each time.

But there were times when I was "located" 20 miles south-west where Comcast has a connection to east-west fiber-optic cables for the main connection to the "internet". And other times where my "location" was shown as Alexandria, VA; an area where the under-sea fiber-optic cables come into North America. Those times there was major work being done by Comcast that affected a much wider area; typically occurring in the wee-hours when internet usage was very low.

And in those days I was running an application that would log and notify me when my IP Address got changed by my ISP. Sometimes it would 'jump' to the east coast and back a few times an hour between 'loads' of a new domain; although with an adblocker that was not as apparent as it would be if all the ads were shifting between the midwest and the east coast. Some days the logs would show over 100 IP Address changes, although most of the time it was just "toggling" between midwest and an east coast IP Addresses.

Now if you are using WiFi, Google knows "exactly where you live" based upon the MAC address of your WiFi Router, coupled with the IP Address of your internet connection! IMO, that is what "pinpoints" where you are using your computer! An IP Address alone may ID your neighborhood, but not your precise location, that comes from the MAC address that Google recorded. Unfortunately it's hard for the user to identify whether the IP Address is used or if it is true Geo-Location, and the line between the two has become blurred.

Those damn Google Maps "Street View" cars that roam around taking "pictures" of everything it passes on public roads also captured the MAC addresses of every damn WiFi Router it "found". Violation of privacy IMO and there have been lawsuits over that in some locales around the globe over the collection of that data; and other lawsuits about the use or "sharing" of that data. But to my knowledge none in the USA.