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Geolocation changed -> Facebook shows timeline-content in a different language

Started by bartgrefte, June 10, 2017, 12:41:10 AM

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bartgrefte

Since last week, Facebook is showing lots of stuff on my timeline in German, this used to be English and I got a notification for a "nearby" event in Germany that's 600km from here, I don't call that nearby :P

The 1st thing I checked was the language setting, which was still set to English (US).

This morning I did a geolocation check at iplocation.net. My IPv4-adres still ended up in the same Dutch city as before (where my ISP's office is located I believe). My HE IPv6-adress however, that showed different results after I entered that at iplocation.net:
- IP2Location: Germany, Bayern, Rothenburg ob der Tauber
- ipinfo.io: Russia, St.-Petersburg, Saint Petersburg
- DB-IP: Netherlands, North Holland, Amsterdam

The 3rd is correct, I'm using the server in Amsterdam and the 1st result could explain why Facebook is suddenly showing me things in German.

Does anyone have any idea why this happened and how to solve this?

edit: I've send both ipinfo and IP2Location an email about this, although I haven't run into anything Russian yet. Who do you usually have to contact about this anyway, them or HE? ???

snarked

Have you also set any language preferences in your browser?  That could override (or be the problem).

bartgrefte

Quote from: snarked on June 12, 2017, 12:17:46 AM
Have you also set any language preferences in your browser?  That could override (or be the problem).
Nope, first thing I checked, also on Facebook itself where English (US) was still selected. I already tried changing it to English (UK), but that didn't have any affect.

So I am guessing it's probably being caused by IP2Location's database containing incorrect info, that I supposedly live in Germany. They are gonna check that out, hopefully fixed after an update in July.

bartgrefte

The IPv6 databases have been corrected, now they all show the Netherlands as country, 2 list my hometown as city and the 3rd (still) lists Amsterdam, where the tunnelserver is that I'm using.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to have solved the German-issue with Facebook that I'm still having. So unless Facebook is using a different database for IPv6, or there's a delay in processing corrected info, I've got no idea what to do next.

All IPv4 databases listed at iplocation.net show the Netherlands as the country, with the city my (IPv4-)ISP's office is located listed as location.

bartgrefte

This problem still hasn't been solved, so it seems. Even though I've gotten a lot less Germany-related stuff on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=security Facebook (still) shows "Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany" as location from where I logged on, with my tunnel-IPv6 address from HE.

Plus, I found another geo-ip website (freegeoip.net) which claims I live in Russia, just like ipinfo.io did until a couple of months ago.

tjeske

Maybe if you're using IPv6 privacy extensions, you'll get lots of different addresses for your device(s), and all seem to need an entry in those geolocation databases.

bartgrefte

Quote from: tjeske on January 18, 2018, 02:06:59 PM
Maybe if you're using IPv6 privacy extensions, you'll get lots of different addresses for your device(s), and all seem to need an entry in those geolocation databases.
Even if I did, wouldn't those databases only contain 2001:470:****:****::/64 and list the same location for every address within that 2001:470:****:****::/64?

Just now I checked iplocation.net again, the right country is listed with all databases, but Facebook still thinks I'm German and adjusts ads and such accordingly. Their support doesn't seem to be capable of solving this and I still have no idea which database they use so I can contact the people who maintain it directly....