Hackers have used geolocation software to find the home address of  users who visit the wrong websites, according to a report on the BBC.

The software works by identifying network router number by tricking the router into providing it.

Presenting at a hacking conference known as “Black Hat”, hacker Samy Kamkar demonstrated how a router’s identification code can be used with a geolocation feature of the Firefox web browser to provide a router’s location.

The router locations are kept in a Google database created when its cars were carrying out surveys for its Street View service.The hacking software accesses this database to provide the GPS location of the router.

Kamkar used the demonstration to show how easy it was to identify someone's location to within a few metres.
"This is geo-location gone terrible," he said.

For the attack to work the router needs to be set to use the default administrative password and its address must already have been recorded by Google's Street View cars.