Geolocation Question

["McGhee, Eddie" <Eddie.McGhee () ncr com>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/05/geo_location_stealing_hack/

I am sure most of you would have seen this yesterday at some point.

I only have one question how does Google get the information of MAC address's and locations.

I change my MAC quite a lot on my router when needing a new IP address if mitigating any attacks etc so does the ISP 
share this info with Google?

Isn't that a breach of privacy laws if this is the case?

If it is not the case then how does it pinpoint locations via MAC address? Bearing in mind ARP is a non routable 
protocol..

p.s this worked for me and my friend around 1 mile away and the accuracy was perfect!! I would got to say it got my 
house and friends by 10 metres max! My other friend same ISP maybe 2-3 miles away shows nothing from his MAC.

Cheers!

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