Published on May 24th, 2022
A lot of people don’t give their IP address even a second’s thought, but you definitely should. An IP address is something of a digital fingerprint and it can be a way to leave your marks around the internet, making it easier for people to find you or for companies to track you.
In this guide, we’re exploring the hows and whys of masking your activity online. Should you really be worried about who gets your IP?
What Is An IP address?
An Internet Protocol (IP) address is like a signature that helps to identify devices on internet networks and to send data packets between other computers and devices within a network including the internet. It is effectively a string of characters that gives a device its own unique identifying properties within the net, such as a laptop.
It is also used when your device starts to connect with other devices or even just networks and that means websites and logging into accounts. There is usually a record of your IP’s activities and a footprint left.
Why Do You Need To Hide Your IP Address?
You don’t have to share what you don’t want to. A lot of people choose to hide IP address settings so that they can retain their privacy online, which makes perfect sense.
Benefits include:
- Keeping your physical address away from prying eyes. If you don’t keep your IP address private then there is every chance that people can triangulate where you are in the world using your connections to networks and the footprint this leaves.
- Avoiding restrictions, as some websites may only let you connect from some locations and block others.
- Preventing targeting (such as ads) based on your activities while you’re logged in and what you do when you are online, to target ads, etc.
- Stopping your internet provider from tracking what you are up to online.
- Ensuring that your search activity is not shared or intercepted.
- Stopping companies and services tracking that you’ve visited before.
How To Hide Your IP Address
We’ve shared some of the different methods and approaches below.
Hide IP Address With VPN (Virtual Private Network)
You have probably heard of this method even if you don’t completely understand it. A VPN is a really popular type of software or app.
It encrypts all of your traffic and searches by taking the data and putting it through a “virtual” tunnel, this is encrypted so it can protect data from being intercepted. It makes it easy to keep your activities private or appear that you are connecting from elsewhere.
Hide Your IP Address With a Proxy
A proxy or proxy server is another method of IP address anonymity so that your device’s details aren’t connected through the internet. This type of connection is popular but they aren’t always as reliable as VPNs.
Use Tor While Browsing
Tor is totally free. You can download it for your computer and it works a little bit like its own version of a browser. It does the same purpose, masking your IP when you make any sort of connection on the internet. It’s encrypted to give you privacy while you browse but takes a little bit of setting up.
Use Public WiFi To Hide Your IP
Public connections make your geographical location a bit more anonymous, and certainly tougher to track with your IP address, especially if you are connecting to multiple different places.
How To Find And Check Your IP Address?
You can use an IP address lookup service to see what information exists regarding your device already. Most of these will provide the details of the string of characters and what your actual IP is, but it can also show you if there is data collected about your IP address, such as geographical information about where you’re connecting from.
How To Protect Your IP Address?
There are numerous approaches you can take to protect your IP address and make sure you don’t end up giving away more information than you want to. A VPN can be a great investment, and some of these even have Tor connections and proxies built-in, so you can double your protection while you surf the internet.
Think carefully about your connection to the internet, for example, always log in to your VPN before you start surfing, and remember that every connection on a network that you make is a potential leak, and data profile of what you do and where you are. Advertisers even use it to target you a lot more closely when they are trying to get you to buy something.
Conclusion
It is crazy that IP addresses are probably a big part of your life, and you might even be sharing your IP data right now, without even knowing it. To keep your activities more private and avoid advertisers and other individuals from tracking you, or knowing where in the world you are, you should come up with a strategy to protect your IP address and retain your privacy at all times while surfing.
Ezra Bishop is the customer success manager at WhatIsMyIpAddress. He helps customers learn how things operate and enjoys sharing his knowledge and experience through blogging.
