GeoIP2 Release Notes - 2019 Archive

The USER_ID_REQUIRED error code is now ACCOUNT_ID_REQUIRED

Our web services, including GeoIP2 web services and minFraud services, now return the error code ACCOUNT_ID_REQUIRED instead of USER_ID_REQUIRED when the account ID parameter is missing.

Resolving to parent city for Australian suburbs

Effective December 23, 2019, we will begin resolving more Australian IP addresses to large cities instead of suburbs (e.g. to Sydney instead of Rushcutters Bay).

Changes to accessing and using GeoLite2 databases

Free GeoLite2 Database Users: Due to upcoming data privacy regulations, we are making significant changes to how you access free GeoLite2 databases starting December 30, 2019. Learn more on our blog.

Query usage report license key filter

You can now filter by license key when viewing the query usage report [login required] in your account portal.

Changes to Japan Postal Codes

Effective December 16, 2019, we will return 1 as the last digit for all 7 digit postal codes in Japan. The last digit refers to street-level resolution and should not be relied upon for IP geolocation.

Changes to Portugal Postal Codes

Effective November 12, 2019, we will return -001 as the last 3 digits for all 7 digit postal codes in Lisbon, Portugal. Our postal code resolution in Portugal is accurate for the first 4 digits and we include the -001 at the end for backwards compatibility for customers to join the data with 7 digit Portuguese postal code databases. We may extend this convention to other large Portuguese cities in the future.

Retirement of TLS 1.0/1.1 and unencrypted http minFraud requests

We retired support for TLS v1.0/v1.1 and unencrypted HTTP requests to minFraud services today, as part of our commitment to securing and protecting your data. Please ensure you are using TLS v1.2+ to connect to MaxMind services.

New static_ip_score output in web services

The following output has been added to the GeoIP2 Insights web service, and minFraud Insights and Factors web services:

• static_ip_score – An indicator of how static or dynamic an IP address is. The value ranges from 0 to 99.99 with higher values meaning a greater static association. For example, many IPs with a user_type of cellular have a score under one. Static Cable/DSL IPs typically have a score above thirty. This indicator can be useful for deciding whether an IP address represents the same user over time.

The static_ip_score output is present in the traits object.

Final reminder of security-related retirements

This is a reminder that we are retiring support for requests using TLS 1.0/1.1, and unencrypted HTTP requests to MaxMind minFraud services on October 16, 2019. After October 16, 2019, these types of requests will always fail with an error. Please update to TLS 1.2+ to avoid service disruption. You may need to upgrade your technology stack to a later version, or make code changes to do so.

Contact us for support or if you have questions.

Improved cellular IP detection

We have made improvements to how we identify cellular IPs for the connection_type field provided in the GeoIP2 Connection Type database, and the user_type field provided in the GeoIP2 Insights web service and minFraud services. Accuracy for cellular identification should now be about 95% accurate globally.

Account activity log

You can now view a log of your MaxMind account activity, which includes a time stamp, requester, and subject, for the each of the following actions:

• Creation of a new user
• Deactivation of a user
• User password changes
• Email address / username changes

Account administrators can see activity across the whole account, while non-administrators will only see their own activity. You can find the account activity log in your account portal under 'Account Information' or here [login required].

New network and user_count outputs in web services

The following outputs have been added to the GeoIP2 Insights web service, and minFraud Insights and Factors web services:

• network – The network in CIDR notation associated with the record. This is the largest network where all of the fields besides ip_address have the same value.
• user_count – The estimated number of users sharing the IP/network during the past 24 hours. For IPv4, the count is for the individual IP. For IPv6, the count is for the /64 network.

Both of these outputs are present in the traits object.

Planned warning interruption (September 2019)

8-hour interruption of old TLS and unencrypted minFraud requests on September 25, 2019

There will be a planned service interruption for all requests to MaxMind services that use TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1, and for unencrypted HTTP requests to MaxMind legacy minFraud services (e.g. minFraud Standard, minFraud Premium, Proxy Detection web service, IIN service). This will take place for up to 8 hours from 14:00-22:00 UTC on September 25, 2019.

During the interruption, requests using TLS v1.0 and v1.1 and unencrypted HTTP requests to legacy minFraud endpoints will fail with an error.

To avoid service interruption, you may need to upgrade some part of your technology stack to a later version, or you may need to make code changes. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Additional info is available on our blog.

Anonymous IP data in GeoIP online lookup form

GeoIP2 web service customers can now access anonymous IP data through the GeoIP2 online lookup form [login required] in the account portal. Select the GeoIP2 Insights web service on the form when querying IP(s).

Improved business IP detection

We have made improvements in how we detect business IPs for the user type field provided as part of the GeoIP2 Insights web service and minFraud services. Approximately 1% of residential IPs were recently corrected to the appropriate business user type as a result of these improvements.

Planned warning interruption (August 2019)

8-hour interruption of old TLS and unencrypted minFraud requests on August 28, 2019

There will be a planned service interruption for all requests to MaxMind services that use TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1, and for unencrypted HTTP requests to MaxMind legacy minFraud services (e.g. minFraud Standard, minFraud Premium, Proxy Detection web service, IIN service). This will take place for up to 8 hours from 14:00-22:00 UTC on August 28, 2019.

During the interruption, requests using TLS v1.0 and v1.1 and unencrypted HTTP requests to legacy minFraud endpoints will fail with an error.

To avoid service interruption, you may need to upgrade some part of your technology stack to a later version, or you may need to make code changes. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Additional info is available on our blog.

Weekly updates for GeoIP2 ISP and GeoIP2 Connection Type

We now update the GeoIP2 ISP and GeoIP2 Connection Type databases weekly (previously they were updated twice a month and once a month respectively). Update your download frequency if you use these databases to ensure you have the most up-to-date files.

Planned warning interruption

There will be a planned service interruption for all requests to MaxMind services that use TLS versions 1.0 and 1.1, and for unencrypted HTTP requests to MaxMind legacy minFraud services (e.g. minFraud Standard, minFraud Premium, Proxy Detection web service, IIN service). This will take place for up to 2 hours starting at 14:00 UTC on the three dates below:

• Monday, July 29, 2019
• Wednesday, July 31, 2019
• Friday, August 2, 2019

During the interruption, requests using TLS v1.0 and v1.1 and unencrypted HTTP requests to legacy minFraud endpoints will fail with an error.

To avoid service interruption, you may need to upgrade some part of your technology stack to a later version, or you may need to make code changes. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Additional info is available on our blog.

Postal code data for Singapore and South Korea

We are adding postal code data for Singapore and South Korea. Effective July 22nd 2019, we will return the first 2 digits of Singapore postal codes and 5-digit South Korea postal codes where we have reasonable confidence in postal resolution.

Security Tokens

We've updated the direct download URLs for GeoIP databases in your account portal to use security tokens instead of license keys. If you are a new user and wish to use your own script or program to automate GeoIP downloads instead of using our GeoIP Update Program, there are additional steps to take after copying the direct download URL from your account portal.

If you are an existing user that has already set up your own script or program to automate GeoIP downloads, this change should not affect you, unless you add new databases to your script or program. Instructions on additional steps are here.

Security-related retirements 2019

In order to ensure your data is as safe and secure as possible, we will be retiring support for TLS v1.0 and 1.1, unencrypted HTTP requests to our legacy minFraud services, and our legacy minFraud SOAP API in the coming months. Please see our blog for more info.

2FA release

To enhance the security of your MaxMind account, Chrome users can enable two-factor authentication (2FA). You can now add and require a (FIDO U2F) security key on top of your account credentials for a more secure log-in. See our support center user guide for information on how to set up 2FA.

Crimea accuracy update 2019

We completed our most recent review and update of Geolocation for Crimea. Our accuracy has increased as follows: Approximately 93% of website visitors who are from Crimea are currently located by GeoIP as being in Crimea. Approximately 99% of the visitors who are located in Crimea by GeoIP are actually in Crimea.

We currently locate Crimea in Ukraine, as we use GeoNames data and they locate Crimea in Ukraine. If GeoNames locates Crimea in Russia in the future, we will follow their change and post an announcement here as well as on https://twitter.com/maxmind.

In legacy GeoIP, we return a FIPS region code of 11 or 20. In GeoIP2, we return a iso code of 40 or 43 in the subdivision object.

Due to the nature of geolocation technology and other factors beyond our control, we cannot guarantee any specific future accuracy level. Further, accuracy figures are subject to change as IP networks are reallocated.

Initial Release of Ruby API

We have added Ruby as a MaxMind Supported GeoIP2 API (RubyGems, GitHub). It provides a Ruby reader for the MaxMind DB Database Format (used by the GeoIP2 databases and our free GeoLite2 databases).

New GeoIP Update released

We've released a new major version of GeoIP Update. This release adds support for Windows and has a new code base. You can find it on GitHub. We’ve written an upgrade guide if you’re running an older version.

Limiting availability of archived GeoIP databases

In order to address new legal requirements, including the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we will be limiting availability of archived GeoIP databases to 30 days. This change will be effective March 18, 2019 and applies to all GeoIP2, GeoIP, and GeoLite2 databases. You may need to change your processes or applications to download more recent databases once this change occurs.

Server IP Changes January 2019

On Monday, January 7, 2019 at approximately 15:00 UTC (10:00am EST), we will be switching to static server IP addresses for traffic to our website and to downloads.maxmind.com (used for GeoIP database downloads). The IP for the hostname used by our web services or geoipupdate tool won't change immediately, but if you whitelist IPs for any of our services we encourage you to add the new IP addresses to your whitelist. The static IP addresses will be a subset of what we list on our MaxMind server IP addresses page. We will update the list of IP addresses on that page following the change. Please sign up for the email list on that page if you want a notification when our server IP addresses change.

GeoIP2-node includes support for web service lookups

We have added web service lookup support to our GeoIP2 Node.js API (NPM, GitHub).