Location Guard

Location Guard

Hide your geographic location from websites. Report a fake location with the addition of random noise in order to protect your privacy. Per site settings with three configurable levels of accuracy or even the possibility to use a fixed location.

What is Location Guard?
"Location Guard" is a Firefox extension that allows users to protect their privacy by hiding their actual geographic location from websites. It adds a random 'noise' to your real location before reporting it to websites to prevent accurate location detection. The plug-in offers three distinct privacy levels that users can set based on their preferences and the site they are visiting. There is also an option for a fixed location, offering maximum privacy protection.
Merlin
Stats
Rating: 3.72 (138)
Version: 2.5.0 (Last updated: 2022-03-18)
Creation date: 2014-03-21
Weekly download count: 632
Firefox on Android: Yes
Risk impact: Moderate risk impact
Risk likelihood: Low risk likelihood
Manifest version: 2
Permissions:
  • http://*/*
  • https://*/*
  • storage
Size: 637.52K
URLs: Website
Stats date:

Other platforms

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Merlin
Summary

Modern browsers such as Mozilla Firefox can tell websites where you're located in order to provide location-aware functionality. Your geographic location is obtained through various means (eg. using wifi data) and is often highly accurate, which can be a violation of your privacy.

This extension allows you to enjoy the useful applications of geolocation while protecting your privacy. It does so by reporting a fake location to websites, obtained by adding a certain amount of "noise" to the real location. The noise is randomly selected in a way that ensures that the real location cannot be inferred with high accuracy.

Three configurable privacy levels are provided. The higher the privacy level the greater the amount of noise, which gives better privacy at the expense of a less accurate fake location. This can be configured per-website for flexibility: a more accurate location can be provided for driving directions than for a weather forecast. There's also an option to use a fixed location, instead of adding noise to the real one. This offers the best privacy (no dependence on the real location at all), at the cost of very low accuracy.

Note: your location can be also detected from your IP address, but usually with poor accuracy. Location Guard protects the accurate location revealed through the javascript API.

User reviews
User reviews summary
These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Firefox Browser Add-ons does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • does what it is supposed to do
  • simple
  • tiny, not bloated
  • uses OSM/Leaflet for settings instead Google Maps
Cons
  • lack of per site settings
  • doesn't give button to turn on/off extension
  • confusion between fixed location and privacy level
Most mentioned
  • lack of per site settings
  • extension icon not shown in Firefox toolbar
  • inability to change IP location
Recent reviews
by nunesgh, 2024-04-21

by nunesgh, 2024-04-21

by nunesgh, 2024-04-21
View all user reviews
Safety
Risk impact

Location Guard may not be safe to use and it requires some risky permissions. Exercise caution when installing this add-on. Review carefully before installing.

Risk likelihood

Location Guard has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.

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Screenshots