_nomap
The underscore nomap suffix in SSID indicates your desire to opt-out of Wi-Fi positioning systems and, in some cases, mass surveillance. This used to be a not so great blog-post and has since became a hopefully better note to whoever it may concern
_nomap in the end of your SSID will exclude your network from Google, Apple,
WiGLE etc.
Wikipedia has a more complete list of supporting services.
Microsoft has a separate location services opt-out which uses MAC addresses instead.
Hidden SSID won’t work for opt-out in some of those services. Refer to n/hiddenssid.
Automaattinen sisällysluettelo / Automatically generated Table of Contents
Why?
For privacy. WiGLE.net may point your home directly just by entering the SSID and who knows how many similar services there are. While I have been thinking of this since 2015, there is at least one case where this has been used in 2018:
In the second quarter of 2024, researchers found that Apple allows tracking Wi-Fi networks that hadn’t opted out, including Starlink terminals in Ukraine and Gaza.
For practical reasons. If you have ever moved taking your WiFi access point with you, you may have noticed Google/Apple Maps and all locating you to your old home, which may be annoying with route planner apps and similar.
To fix this, you can either append _nomap to your SSID to remove it from the
positioning process, try going outside with maps open and hoping it will update
your location or wait patiently for the location services to realize your move.
Another occassionally happening event is the WiFi AP moving by itself.
Location services may blocklist moving access points without static location, or
you may find that on the move you always locate to a home point, while it would
be more useful to just _nomap so other location sources would be used
immediately.
_optout
Legacy from 2015-2016. Used to be part of Microsoft WiFi Sense that shared WiFi networks and passwords to all contacts.
Privacy Badger will take care of third-party tracking the best, but hiding this message takes a more targeted filter such as uBlock Origin (for Firefox) or uBlock Origin Lite (for everything else).
Additionally considering adblocking DNS services such as DNS4EU Protective Resolution With Ad blocking or public AdGuard DNS may be a good idea to clean up your modern internet.
Learn more about targeted advertising!
PS. I am not sorry if this cosmetic filtering targeting script doesn't detect your protection, because this message brings me too many amused messages and smiles for that (and thus this message is here to stay) 🐾