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How can you determine the home coordinates for a user?

–1 vote
2.7k views
I am interested in creating several challenge checkers that depend on knowing the home coordinates of a cacher.

In looking over the sandbox API, there does not appear to be any function that can retrieve this information.

In checking other scripts that use coordinates and distance calcuations, everyone seems to be using hard-coded coordinates and there is no general use of determining a cacher's home location.  Which of course is not usable for a lot of challenges related to distance.

I know this is potentially private information and a user may choose to not share this information.  In this case a script would not be able to get those coordinates.

But if it is shared, how can you get it?
in Support and help by caverdon (180 points)

2 Answers

+1 vote
It would be a serious breach of users personal security if the API was ever to reveal their home location. Groundspeak are never going to implement something even if it was an opt in as that would be monumentally stupid for anyone to opt into.

It's bad enough that people are stupid enough to post huge amounts of personal data on the likes of Facebook without ever setting any privacy settings, thus telling people when they are away from home on holiday (vacation), if you published your home location too you are inviting crime, you are also making it a lot easier for anyone to commit all manner of identity theft crimes if they know the precise co-ordinates of your home location.

Thus it will NEVER be possible to see the home location for anyone other than yourself. Nor should it ever be.
by ShammyLevva (Expert) (8.3k points)
0 votes

Ganja wrote in the forum notes that these checkers will only work on your own profile name.

by vogelbird (Expert) (56.7k points)
Can you help me understand?

There are sandbox functions to return information for any given profile like PGC_GetFinds, PGC_GetHides, PGC_GetFavorites, and PGC_GetSouvenirs.

Would it be possible to have an API like PGC_GetProfileData, and one item returned would be a profile's home coordinates (if allowed)?

It would seem we are already retrieving information for any specified profile with the above API.  From the profile stats page there are calculations made from a profile's home coordinates for the closest cache and farthest cache from home, so this data is available.
by caverdon (180 points)
You better pose this question in the script writers forum. If you have not access please write to support
by vogelbird (Expert) (56.7k points)
Thanks, I will!
by caverdon (180 points)
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