Google is collecting information from Wi-Fi access points from all over the world to enable it to speed up location services. Unfortunately it is gathering this information and maybe more, without the consent of the owners of the access point.
What’s more, Google is not only gathering data from public Wi-Fi access points but also from home and business users too. If you value your privacy, there is a way to stop Google recording your Wi-Fi access point’s location information. It’s reasonably straight forward to implement.
- Log in to your routers home page; usually this is done via an IP address similar to 192.168.0.1 if you don’t know, consult your router instruction manual
- Once you are logged in, go to the routers Wireless Settings
- Find the name or SSID of your Wi-Fi access point
- Add _nomap to the end o the the SSID
- Make sure to Apply or Save the changes
- That’s it, Google will no longer have your Wi-Fi router in its database.
One things to note, now that you have changed your access point name, you will need to reconnect all of your Wi-Fi connected devices to the new access point name.
Source: Google via Android Central
