IP Addresses – How They Keep Your from Being Totally Private Online
All Internet users have IP addresses that are used by their computer each time they are connected to the Internet. An IP address is a number that is used by computer on a network to identify users’ computers. The Internet protocol (IP) address is used to connect to the Internet and to communicate with other computers. Web sites’ may use log files to record users’ IP addresses, time, pages, and images downloaded, the Referrer (the last page where the user clicked a link to the current page), the data entered by the user, and Internet cookies. The Web browser will send most of the information to the browser header. IP addresses prevent users from having total privacy online, because the address can be used to obtain all the personal information of certain users.
When users are connected to the Internet, the ISP assigns the computer an IP address. The IP address is displayed each time a user uses a search provider, and other online services. The Web sites use that number to link all of the user’s searches. The addresses are sensitive, because they can be directly linked to users’ ISP accounts via their ISP’s logs. However, an IP address does not follow a computer wherever it goes; if a laptop is used for work through AT&T the laptop will have a different IP address when it is used for personal use through Comcast.
Some users have a changing “dynamic” IP address that changes each time the user connects to the Internet, so users don’t have to worry about the privacy issue. Some users have the changing address, but with a broadband connection, which requires them to turn their modem off on a regular basis to make address changes. Other users may have an unchanging “static” IP address, which may require them to use anonymizing software to keep the IP address private. An IP address can be used to identify a user’s ISP, and may also identify a user’s nation/province/ state, and maybe even the city the user resides in. The amount of information obtainable from a person’s IP address depends on their ISP’s privacy policy.
Web sites can use IP addresses to track the movements of users through its pages by their IP addresses, which may aide in profiling within a single site. Profiling is also known as tracking, and is used to assemble and analyze several events, which are attributable to an originating entity. Tracking the events is used to gain information (patterns of activity) relating to an originating entity. There are certain organizations that use profiling to obtain information on certain people’s web browsing habits, collecting the URLs of sites they have visited. The profiles may link with information that personally identifies the browser.
Market-research organizations can use this practice legitimately in order to construct profiles of “typical internet users.” The profiles are used to describe average trends of large groups of Internet users, which prove useful for market analysis. Most users feel that their privacy is invaded through the profiling process, because the organizations obtain their personal browsing information without permission. The IP address provides the minimum amount of information that is needed to attack a computer over the Internet. There are also some operating systems that are set up to perform data logging of usage. The data logged may include the recording the times the computer is in use, or which web sites are visited. All of the information on display for third party viewers leads to a reduction in users’ privacy. Users may be able to protect their privacy by hiding their IP address or by clearing their logs on a regular basis.
