Website not recognising broswer or location - MacBook Pro 2011

[Mavis Hose]

My dear old 2011 MacBook Pro was bought second-hand from interstate around five years ago. It's been generally reliable and trouble-free but one thing it does constantly bugs me bigtime. It has an ongoing propensity to not establish links or digital handshakes with websites and various platforms - especially Facebook, which doesn't recognise my browser or my locations. Eight times out of ten, when I open Facebook I will get a verification request on my phone asking if I just logged in from (generally a city or town in Victoria - the state 1000 kilometres away where I bought the laptop five years ago...).
I usually just ignore the geographic error on the basis that I know it was my attempt to log into Facebook that created the automatic query. When I click yes, it was me and yes, this browser is OK for the future, it lets me in... until the next time. Rinse and repeat.
I've checked all the obvious settings but I'm wondering if the geographic errors are mostly caused by the fact that the machine's original Victorian owner may have been required to register the device and the "system" thinks it's in Victoria as a default. The reason I say "mostly" is because every very occasionally "it" gets it right and nominates the correct local location. But rarely.
The location issue also causes my regularly used web sites to lose their "local memory" in terms of remembering/identifying my favourite/nearest stores etc. Lately it's been suggesting stores in.. yep, Victorian locations as my nearest outlets.
So, summary is - websites aren't correctly identifying my location and/or recognising/remembering my regular Firefox browser that I've used for years.
Suggestions most welcome.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

-Which version of OS X/macOS?
-Which version of Firefox?
-Does the issue occur on other browsers such as Safari?

It doesn't matter where the Mac was purchased, registered, and setup, as that information isn't set as a default for the life of the Mac. It sounds like what you may be seeing could be a couple of things. Location Services on your Mac uses Wi-Fi to triangulate your position. The IP address your Mac gets in different locations do report far different locations the you are actually at. For instance, my Macs frequently report my location in towns/cities that are in different states altogether. In addition, temporary Internet browsing history caches can save location information from previous browsing sessions, and things like cookies are used by Internet ad services to display offers based on your location or previous browsing history/search results.

You could try the steps here to see if it helps the issue: Delete browsing, search and download history on Firefox

NOTE: clearing this information can sign you out of some websites, so make sure you have your logins safely stored somewhere.

Hope that helps,

C