IP & HTML5 Geolocation

Geolocation allows your web browser to access data allowing to locate a person : latitude, longitude and altitude. There is several ways to get this data on a website. To do so, BRIDGE uses two different technologies : HTML5 Geolocation and IP Geolocation.

1. HTML5 Geolocation

HTML5 Geolocation is the most precise way to access gps coordinates of a website visitor. The GPS coordinates are calcultated by the web browser and transmitted to BRIDGE. BRIDGE doesn't calculate directly these GPS coordinates.

The web browser relies on multiple data sources to determinate a visitor GPS coordinates. These data sources may vary with the type of device used by the visitor, and can be calculted by :

• The GPS chip in the device (on mobile devices)
• GSM / 3G triangulation (on mobile devices)
• Wifi triangulation (with MAC address database) 

2. IP Geolocation

If the HTML5 geolocation is not available for a device, BRIDGE will use MaxMind, an IP geolocation service. Although MaxMind is the IP Geolocation leader service, it is not 100% accurate.

Since the web browser Google Chrome 50 and Safari 10 updates, your store locator has to be secured using HTTPS to use the HTML5 geolocation.

Do not hesitate to contact BRIDGE support team to get more information about how to switch to HTTPS.

Note: We never retrieve an Internet user's geolocation without their consent.