610252 - Disabling geolocation in about config does not prevent geolocation

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Karlanoirci]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; fr; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; fr; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101026 Firefox/3.6.12

I have set the geo.enabled parameter to false in about config (this feature should be tunred off by default, whgen respecting users privacy)and still, whe, I browse to Google News http://news.google.fr/news?edchanged=1&ned=us, I can see my location on the right side.
When trying other sites, I have the same issue

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.go to about:config ans set geo location to false
2. go to http://browserspy.dk/geolocation.php
3. See that you have been traced
Actual Results:  
I haver been geolocalized, thanks to Firefox

Expected Results:  
It should have preserved my privacy

I will need to use Opera or Chrome, for this matter

Comment 1

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Not an attack vector doesn't need to stay hidden.

Comment 2

[rsx11m]

At browserspy.dk, only the IP-based map shows up (and is about two states off) for me, the geolocation map stays empty with geo.enabled=false. Thus, what you see on the other web site is most likely based on the IP address alone, which cannot be prevented as it is information necessary to maintain the connection.

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

>2. go to http://browserspy.dk/geolocation.php
>3. See that you have been traced

You have to click on "get position" before that site tries geolocation and this opens an infobar in Firefox that asks you if you want to share your location (if you didn't change anything ib about:config). 
Firefox will never share your geolocation unless you agree to that !

Are you sure that you not only see the IP based location feature on that page ?

>I browse to Google News http://news.google.fr/news?edchanged=1&ned=us, I can
>see my location on the right side.

That confirms that you are only seeing an IP based location detection.
I will mark this bug invalid based on that