X recently launched a new feature that allows users to see accounts' locations — and Canadians have some questions.For one, the Liberal Party of Canada and the NDP's X accounts were previously labeled as being based in the US, as the National Post reported Tuesday.With this came confusion — how could Canadian political parties have their accounts listed as being based in the US?One answer comes from the information button located next to the location on an account, which states, "This data might not be accurate and can change periodically."But why would it be inaccurate?.Both the NDP and Liberal Party's official X accounts now show Canada as their locations, but there's no erasing the fact that they originally appeared to be based in the United States.There are a number of reasons why this could've occurred, as Courtney Gibson, a computer engineering professor at the University of Toronto and the Chief Technology Officer at medical company MedixSafe, told the Western Standard."From the technical details that X has publicly disclosed, yes, absolutely it could," he said when asked whether the location could be affected by VPNs..This is why X had included a warning on the location information of accounts, which read:"One of our partners has indicated that this account may have used a proxy — such as a VPN, which may change the country or region that is displayed on their profile. This data may not be accurate. Some internet providers may use proxies automatically without action by the user.”Gibson expanded on this, stating, "they appear to be calculating an 'average' location, based on a number of factors, including where you have been posting from over some recent number of days.""If you frequently use a VPN, for privacy-protection, malware protection, or some other purpose," he added, "you could accidentally — or intentionally — be confusing their algorithm into reporting that you are posting from a different location in the world.".The VPN could've disrupted where the location shown on X because a VPN allows its users to select a different location in the world and while surfing the internet — as a result, X's system may read the VPN's location setting — not the actual one. As for why the location shifted from the US to Canada on these X accounts, Gibson said, "It appears to be changing, even over the last few days.""In an effort to make it more accurate," he explained, "it appears that they are basing their assessment on a growing list of factors: things like your IP address, how that has moved over time, what country's App Store you downloaded the X app from, and how those things line up with your online activity."However, he stated, "there is simply no independent registry or authority that can say for certain where someone is located, short of compelling internet service providers (ISPs) and VPN providers to turn over customer lists.".Gibson expanded on how IP addresses, which supposedly match an internet address with a physical location, could also disrupt the accuracy of where it says an internet user's location is based."The original numbering system for the Internet (known as IPv4) only has a finite number of IP addresses," he said. "While newer technology has been very-slowly rolling out for years, the vast majority of devices on the Internet — everything from your home Internet connection to security cameras, connected cars, mobile phones and smart devices — they all compete for this limited pool of addresses.""Over time," Gibson concluded, "as the number of connected devices on the Internet has grown, companies keep slicing off and selling addresses to one another — and that can quickly lead to 'location' databases that are out-of-date."
