According to their API documentation[1] this is what they are doing: There is an "accuracy_radius" element being returned right next to latitude and longitude.

According to their API documentation[1] this is what they are doing: There is an "accuracy_radius" element being returned right next to latitude and longitude. And according to the Internet Archive, this element existed already in 2015, so they do not seem to have added it in response to this article. What they did seem to have added in response to this article, however (as it is new), is a more explicit warning for their customers: "Latitude and Longitude are often near the center of population. These values are not precise and should not be used to identify a particular address or household." To be honest, I think it is very hard for an API provider to ensure that their customers will use all the right disclaimers when providing their data onwards to their customers... I think the new approach with pointing the general coordinates into uninhabitated spaces and adding that warning seems probably the best they can do without completely changing their API design (which would make many customers very angry, I would guess). [1] http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/web-services/ http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/web-services/