GeoIP2 Release Notes - 2019 Archive

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.

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.

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].

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.