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I am using Fedora in GNOME with the positioning service, so the system can get the local time automatically.

However, when I connect to a VPN for a long time, it seems that the system think that my location is at the location the VPN server is located.

The question is how does the system calculate my location (like the network protocol running or the server's IP address requesting). I would like to block the service temporarily (with a firewall or something) when connected to the VPN instead of closing the positioning service in GNOME manually.

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The location is estimated based on the public IP address, which can be (to some extent and accuracy) mapped to the location. When you are using VPN for all the traffic, also these checks go through the VPN and your public IP is the IP of the server. You can verify/test it with 

https://www.whatismyip.com/

It will show your IP and estimated location.

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  • Is there a known service provider of this service in Fedora or known configuration file?
    – Eric Stdlib
    Jul 23, 2017 at 8:55
  • IMHO, GeoClue is used in GNOME to resolve the location for the applications.
    – Jakuje
    Jul 24, 2017 at 11:34
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    Yes, it uses Geoclue. And Geoclue uses a variety of sources, including Mozilla Location Service. This prefers using nearby wifi access points for location, but falls back to IP. Or it can get information from the GPS of an attached 3G modem.
    – mattdm
    Jul 24, 2017 at 18:36
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    @mattdm thanks for clarification. Generally and probably in case of the OP based on the description, the IP location is used.
    – Jakuje
    Jul 24, 2017 at 19:01
  • It seems that GNOME is actually using GeoClue. Its service name is geoclue.service and can be disabled manually (to solve my problem).
    – Eric Stdlib
    Jul 25, 2017 at 5:00

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