Hello World

[Kas]

An old chestnut I know, but it is a very personal and serious subject for those who are sufficiently concerned about divulging their individual details to the whole world. For the rest of us, then what we are not aware of, we don`t worry about.

 

Your IP gives a recipient a mass of details about you. It is incredible the amount of accurate detail which your IP can generate about you. Simply search "What is my IP" and see from the many choices what they can read about you in any number of flea pits around the world.

 

Hostname, country, town location, actual area of your town location by postcode, time zone, browser, server and how many pieces of toilet paper you use each morning, plus what you are planning for dinner. A LOT of intimate personal details at a single mouse click.

 

Well you can become paranoid or neurotic about all this jazz and life will become an obsession, dedicated to preventing all your personal details from being sent to the entire world. Solution ? Dump your PC and find another activity to occupy your time.

 

I once came across an extremely intelligent and professional geek, who spent all his time cobbling up his account in such a way that nobody in the entire Universe would ever trace his personal IP. It was so  elaborate that he never even knew it himself. Whatever is the point in that ? It destroys all the pleasure and purpose of using the Internet.

 

YES, we can use a variety of proxies, either freebies or paid for. We can use VPN and a whole cobbled-up combination of geeky technical trickery to prevent our intimate details from being seen by WORLD INC. But whatever is the point ? Ninety nine out of a hundred site clicks are just electronic connections, nobody is generally out there to pilfer your intimate details and abuse them. But a malicious source can do just that from your IP and will.

 

I always use a proxy to visit untrustworthy sites, but generally it is a matter of "to hell with it" and who cares if they want to know all these irrelevant details. Either you use the Internet as part of normal life in an atmosphere of trust, just like the telephone or you forget it as an intrusion on your personal privacy. and dump your PC in the wheelie bin for the next collection.

 

After over 12 years of Internet activity, visiting  every kind of site imaginable and walking through the Valley of Death and rubbing shoulders with the Devil many times, I am still here and nothing bad has ever happened to me, whatever my IP has revealed or whoever may have read it.

 

What are your thoughts on this IP open-to-the-world revelation of your personal details ?

[Andavari]

I'd worry less about the IP address! Sure entertainment groups for example like the RIAA and MPAA can use it to initially track people who've illegally been trading their properties but they're probably going to be more interested in obtaining the MAC address which identifies actual computers and/or devices which is usually going to be indisputable in court.

 

Unlike an IP address with the MAC address there's no flipping an on/off switch on the modem to switch it because it will always remain static for a computer and/or device.

[kroozer]

How to find your MAC address

[Andavari]

How to find your MAC address

 

Good to know! And a good looking website design too.

 

Also learn about MAC address.

[Andavari]

town location, actual area of your town location by postcode

 

 

For me that is not a 100% correct statement due to how I have my DSL modem configured (which also throws off Geolocation in browsers):

 

If someone were looking for my town location going by IP address/Geolocation they'd end up roughly 80 miles away.

[Kas]

For me that is not a 100% correct statement due to how I have my DSL modem configured (which also throws off Geolocation in browsers):

 

If someone were looking for my town location going by IP address/Geolocation they'd end up roughly 80 miles away.

That may be true for your set-up, but what I stated is PERFECTLY correct, it sure did give my town, a map and the area within the town (post  code) - I read it myself using one of the IP finders selected from my Google search.

 

So it is a correct statement of fact for ME and most likely for thousands of others. You are an exception to this general statement.

It was not meant to say that every single person on Planet Earth would be presented with such detailed personal information as I was, simply that this is what they can do at the click of a mouse..

[Winapp2.ini]

I use a tool on my phone that spoofs my mac address when connecting to networks via wifi. I think it may be root only, it's called Pry-Fi. I imagine something similar exists for desktop OS'