Get the latest tech news

Proof of location for online polls

Information about a device's physical location can be inferred by measuring the time it takes for signals to travel between the device and a known server location. As the speed of light cannot be exceeded according to the known laws of physics, a maximum possible distance can be established with certainty, based on the signal latency.

Latency-based geolocation significantly raises the cost of manipulation attempts and can provide very high poll integrity, if employed in conjunction with other mitigations, such as excluding known data center IP-addresses, and analysis of response patterns. Creating a HTTPS session requires multiple network roundtrips and therefore considerable time and would add unnecessary noise to the actual latency measurements. Similarly the generation and reception of radio signals would likewise introduce additional latencies, which would require significant engineering efforts to be compensated for.

Get the Android app