beaconDB

• ethically sourced: opt-in only data collection
• privacy friendly: published information is obfuscated to protect transmitters and contributors
• abuse resistant: updating existing data requires information only available in physical range of a beacon

contribute

beaconDB has recently started to accept submissions. to add coverage for your area you can use the following apps on your phone:

• NeoStumbler: supports cell towers, wifi networks and bluetooth devices
  • download on F-Droid
  • in the Settings tab, set the endpoint to https://api.beacondb.net, so that your endpoint configuration matches this screenshot
    • you can also select beaconDB from the suggested services to automatically apply the correct configuration
• Tower Collector: only supports cell towers
  • download on F-Droid or Google Play
  • in Upload Preferences, enable support for custom MLS services and set the address to https://api.beacondb.net/v2/geosubmit

data you submit will be aggregated and shared under a public domain license. for more information on how your data is handled, see the privacy notice.

usage

beaconDB is experimental and should not be used by critical services

if you own an Android phone running the latest preview version of microG (v0.3.2), you can easily give beaconDB a spin without needing to install anything. in microG Settings on the Location page, pressing the three dots in the top right lets you set a custom service URL. you can set this to https://beacondb.net/ to give beaconDB a try. make sure to keep the Request from Mozilla options enabled - this refers to the custom service URL.

as beaconDB is starting from scratch there is likely no wifi coverage for your area. if beaconDB can't estimate your location using wifi, it will fallback to an approximate cell tower location sourced from MLS' final data dump. note that submissions will take at least 5 minutes to become available in the beaconDB API.

developers

beaconDB hosts an endpoint at https://api.beacondb.net/v1/geolocate which is compatible with Ichnaea's request format. please make sure to set a user agent to identify your client!!

if your software has a large amount of users, please don't use this as a default location service. beaconDB infrastructure is not yet capable of handling a large amount of requests.

data dumps are currently not available as I'm still researching the measures I need to take to protect the privacy of both contributors and AP owners.

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• source code and bug tracker on Codeberg
• follow updates on Mastodon
• join the discussion on Matrix (preferred) or IRC
• donations accepted on Liberapay
• human readable privacy notice
• made by Joel Koen