> If you're adamant about protecting your privacy, this will prevent your Wi-Fi network and its location from being saved to Google and Microsoft servers

It does not prevent that. It's an indicator that asks these companies nicely to not save the data - there is no prevention mechanism.

Right. Apple doesn't respect it and has given no indication it ever will.

So, how long until Apple joins in and requires "_dontmapme" as the suffix?

_dontmapmebro

This is Do Not Track for WiFi

TL;DR:

> Just add "_nomap" to your network's name to opt out from Google's service.

> Microsoft requires you to include "_optout" somewhere in your SSID.

> So you'd need to create an ID such as "1234_optout_nomap" to reject both services.

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Ugh, this seems really annoying, because SSIDs are limited to 32 chars, and you give up 13 just opting out of these services

Right. Why can't Microsoft just respect _nomap as well as _optout? It's clear what the user's intent is. Also, according to the article, Google requires _nomap to be at the end. Apparently Microsoft doesn't require the same for _optout, but what if they did?

_nomap works also for Mozilla's location tracking thing.

> which the company maps via crowdsourcing and Street View cars

So, if I hide my SSID then they wouldn't be able to find it?

Hiding an SSID is just a feature to not show it to the user. The device already know of its existence.

Opt-out is kinda pointless in "crowded" places. They just take the other 10 wifi near you.