What is locationd and why is my 3rd party firewall intercepting it in Snow Leopard at intervals?

What is locationd and why is my 3rd party firewall intercepting it in Snow Leopard at intervals? Little Snitch reported an outgoing connection from locationd which appears to be a new daemon installed by default on Snow Leopard.
Asked by: Guest \| Views: 393

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Guest [Entry]

"Short answer: You are seeing the request to Skyhook Wireless because they have the geographic database that Apple uses for Core Location in the operating system.

Longer answer:

Skyhook Wireless is the company with the geographic database about WiFi access points that is used for the new location services (Core Location) in OS X Snow Leopard. Core Location is a developer framework for dealing with the computer's location, and a usage example is automatic time zone updates based on your location. There is an option to turn the time zone updates on/off under the Date & Time preferences pane under Time Zone.

Skyhook Wireless's database triangulates a location based on a combination of IP geo-location and the MAC addresses of wireless devices that can be seen, even if the networks it is triangulating the location from is not open. (MAC addresses are always unencrypted and public even when using WPA since the MAC address helps identify the access point.) If I recall correctly, they can usually triangulate to within a few hundred meters of accuracy."