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Safari popup that „s0.2mdn.net“ wants to know my location

chris4565

chris4565

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 22, 2018
1,068
500
Hi everyone,

i just saw this popup on a website:

DC9BCE08-832C-4B16-9F44-E637B023CFBF.jpeg

It says that the mentioned website wants to know my location. Is this something I should worry about?

Thanks in advance and best wishes :)
 
Last edited:
If in doubt, click "Nicht erlauben". Better safe than sorry. Not familiar with what that website is.
 
GrumpyCoder said:
That's google trying to track you for customized ads.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. So I don’t have any virus etc. and instead it simply has to do with the specific website I visited when the popup showed up, right? The website wasn’t anything sketchy by the way and instead a very well known German movie review website. I just found it strange that such a popup showed up on this website.
 
chris4565 said:
Thanks for your reply. So I don’t have any virus etc. and instead it simply has to do with the specific website I visited when the popup showed up, right? The website wasn’t anything sketchy by the way and instead a very well known German movie review website. I just found it strange that such a popup showed up on this website.
Click to expand...
Besides Google tracking, the site probably wanted to show you movies close by your location. I never allow a website to track my location unless it is a mandatory Apple service.
 
chris4565 said:
Thanks for your reply. So I don’t have any virus etc. and instead it simply has to do with the specific website I visited when the popup showed up, right? The website wasn’t anything sketchy by the way and instead a very well known German movie review website. I just found it strange that such a popup showed up on this website.
Click to expand...
All I can say is that 2mdn.net belongs to Google and is used to load ads on websites. It used to be DoubleClick before google bought it. What probably happens is the website is trying to load an ad for you and 2mdn is trying to provide a suiteable one for you, hence they're asking for your location.
 
GrumpyCoder said:
All I can say is that 2mdn.net belongs to Google and is used to load ads on websites. It used to be DoubleClick before google bought it. What probably happens is the website is trying to load an ad for you and 2mdn is trying to provide a suiteable one for you, hence they're asking for your location.
Click to expand...
Thanks, this would definitely make sense.
Apple_Robert said:
Besides Google tracking, the site probably wanted to show you movies close by your location. I never allow a website to track my location unless it is a mandatory Apple service.
Click to expand...
When the movie website wanted to show me movies close by my location wouldn't the website in the popup have been the website I was on (it was filmstarts.de) instead of a Google service website? Or are they using some Google service to determine that?
 
chris4565 said:
Thanks, this would definitely make sense.

When the movie website wanted to show me movies close by my location wouldn't the website in the popup have been the website I was on (it was filmstarts.de) instead of a Google service website? Or are they using some Google service to determine that?
Click to expand...
I don''t know for sure. Depending on how the webpage is designed, it is possible that showing movies close by is tied into the Google tracking and ads as well.
 
Apple_Robert said:
I don''t know for sure. Depending on how the webpage is designed, it is possible that showing movies close by is tied into the Google tracking and ads as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah, true, would be a possible explanation. Thanks :)
 
Last question: Some reports on the internet say that this popup has something to do with adware. So is it safe to assume then that this is not the case?
 
Apple_Robert said:
When in doubt, ere on the side of caution and treat any potential popup as adware.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I never click on any strange popups etc. What I meant is that I read some reports that claim that these s0.2mdn.net popups mean that the system is already infected with adware or something like that. But I hope this is not the case xD
 
chris4565 said:
Yeah, I never click on any strange popups etc. What I meant is that I read some reports that claim that these s0.2mdn.net popups mean that the system is already infected with adware or something like that. But I hope this is not the case xD
Click to expand...
If you are concerned whether or not you are infected with Malware, download Malwarebytes. The scan only takes a few seconds. It is good at removing things like that. The free version works well.
 
Apple_Robert said:
If you are concerned whether or not you are infected with Malware, download Malwarebytes. The scan only takes a few seconds. It is good at removing things like that. The free version works well.
Click to expand...
I think Malwarebytes is only available on macOS but since this popup only showed up on this particular website I guess and hope that it’s just the website‘s fault 👌
 
chris4565 said:
Yeah, I never click on any strange popups etc. What I meant is that I read some reports that claim that these s0.2mdn.net popups mean that the system is already infected with adware or something like that. But I hope this is not the case xD
Click to expand...
Well, in the end it's a website that is providing ads. If there is something fishy in those ads presented is impossible to say, but that's true for any ad. So I wouldn't randomly click on stuff that doesn't seem trustworthy.

It (s0-2mdn-net.l.google.com) points to google, so if you have concerns, drop them a mail:

Code: 
#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/tou/
#
# If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
# https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/inaccuracy_reporting/
#
# Copyright 1997-2021, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd.
#


NetRange:       142.250.0.0 - 142.251.255.255
CIDR:           142.250.0.0/15
NetName:        GOOGLE
NetHandle:      NET-142-250-0-0-1
Parent:         NET142 (NET-142-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        Direct Allocation
OriginAS:       AS15169
Organization:   Google LLC (GOGL)
RegDate:        2012-05-24
Updated:        2012-05-24
Ref:            https://rdap.arin.net/registry/ip/142.250.0.0



OrgName:        Google LLC
OrgId:          GOGL
Address:        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
City:           Mountain View
StateProv:      CA
PostalCode:     94043
Country:        US
RegDate:        2000-03-30
Updated:        2019-10-31
Comment:        Please note that the recommended way to file abuse complaints are located in the following links.
Comment:       
Comment:        To report abuse and illegal activity: https://www.google.com/contact/
Comment:       
Comment:        For legal requests: http://support.google.com/legal
Comment:       
Comment:        Regards,
Comment:        The Google Team
Ref:            https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/GOGL


OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE5250-ARIN
OrgAbuseName:   Abuse
OrgAbusePhone:  +1-650-253-0000
OrgAbuseEmail:  network-abuse@google.com
OrgAbuseRef:    https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/ABUSE5250-ARIN

OrgTechHandle: ZG39-ARIN
OrgTechName:   Google LLC
OrgTechPhone:  +1-650-253-0000
OrgTechEmail:  arin-contact@google.com
OrgTechRef:    https://rdap.arin.net/registry/entity/ZG39-ARIN


#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/tou/
#
# If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
# https://www.arin.net/resources/registry/whois/inaccuracy_reporting/
#
# Copyright 1997-2021, American Registry for Internet Numbers, Ltd.
#
 
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