Does IP Address Reveal my Physical Location?
"Can someone track a user (name, home address, etc.) simply by having their email or IP address? The reason I ask is my kids play some games online, and these sites sometimes have a chat area, where the players can talk to each other while playing. Can my kids be tracked down in any way?" |
Are You Invisible Online?
It's true that your IP address is no secret. It's a basic part of internet communication protocols to send your IP address whenever you connect to another site, request a web page, chat, play an online game, etc. Without your IP address, the computer on the other end wouldn't know where to send the reply.
But that doesn't mean that Evildoers can find your house if they know your IP address. Each time you go online (if you have dialup) or each time you start your computer (if you have cable or dsl) you will be assigned an IP address, randomly selected from a pool of IP's assigned to your Internet service provider (ISP).
WHOIS Your ISP
So a person MIGHT be able to get a general idea of your geographic location, based on your IP address, by doing a lookup on the WHOIS database, but that will only tell them the physical location of your ISP -- not YOUR home address.
And if you use a large regional or nationwide ISP, the IP lookup probably reveals nothing of interest. For example, if you are an AOL subscriber, your IP address lookup will show the location as Dulles, Virginia -- regardless of where you live.
When The Law Comes A Knockin'
Of course there is an exception to every rule. If Joe or Jane User calls your ISP and wants to know who was using a certain IP address last Tuesday, the ISP will tell them to go away. But if an officer of the law hands your ISP a court order to reveal that information, they must do so. Your ISP's logs will enable them to determine which customer was using a certain IP address on a certain date & time, and they must reveal that information if a court has found probable cause that a crime was committed by that person.
But for the truly paranoid (or the criminally inclined) there are ways to surf the web anonymously. The Anonymizer service will act as a proxy between you and your ISP, and they claim that your information cannot be subpoenaed because they do not store it.
What About Email Addresses?
The same concepts apply to your email address. The part that follows the "@" sign is your ISP's domain name. And given the domain name, one can determine the ISP's physical location, but nothing personally identifying about the email user without a court order.
Web-based email accounts are not truly anonymous, either. Even if you don't provide your real name when signing up, they can capture your IP address and track you through your ISP if necessary.
Other Considerations
It's much more likely that you or your children will reveal your physical location the old fashioned way -- by just blurting it out. Kids who chat or play online games should be reminded often that they should never reveal any personal information, including their last name, phone number or home address.
Oh, and if you have any spyware or viruses on your system, all bets are off. These things are designed to violate your privacy. If you need help with scanning your system for spyware, adware and other unwanted pests, see my article on free anti-virus and anti-spyware software for details on how to protect yourself from those risks.
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Posted by Bob Rankin on 27 Oct 2005
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Most recent comments on "Does IP Address Reveal my Physical Location?"
(See all 65 comments for this article.)Posted by:
Stephanie
18 Dec 2010
Today I got a call from a dispute resolution center they said that last year I got a payday loan and never paid it back so they were filing a case against me and if I lose I'll go jail. They said they traced the email account I used to do the loan with through my I P address. My email is with AOL. I think I'm being scammed????
Posted by:
lalo
19 Dec 2010
Someon has sent me an e-mail on behalf of my boss(he/she used his work e-mail) Ufortunately i erased the e-mail from my in-box and I am unable to see the FULL HEADER. Is there any other way to find out which IP has sent it? e.g Can a server administrator find out which IP accessed the web mail?
Posted by:
I think i did an uh oh
16 Jan 2011
Hi,
I have a facebook with my real name and info on it. I created a fake fb account and messed with one of my friends on it. I sent messanges and posted comments on her page. a guy I do not not sent me a friend request and a message on my fake account.I accepted it and then deleted him.then I get on my real account and the same guy sent me a message and friend request. The message said that I'd better stop playing with peoples minds and how he will prove that I am the one doing it. so my question is can this guy figure out that I was using two fb accounts because i responded to his friend request and message by comparing the IP addresses? How can he prove that I was the one doing it? When no one else knew about my having two fb accounts.
Posted by:
Syrian
18 Jan 2011
Hey thanks for this useful thoughts.
but I've a little question here
Facebook is blocked in my country,so I'm using a different IP addresses (from foreign countries)to login .so my question is can my government know what I am doing exactly there,or my real identity?
Posted by:
Yen Yen
02 Feb 2011
Thanks for the useful info=) I have another question. Someone sent me horrible messages in Facebook and I was determined to find out who it was, but she either she blocked me or deactivated her account. So my question would be, is there any way that I can trace her IP address if she blocked me or deactivated her account? My brother said that his friend might have a CD that he can install on my computer that can trace IP address? Is it true, are there really CDs that you can install as tracers? If so, how accurate are they? Thank you!
EDITOR'S NOTE: You don't need a CD to trace IP addresses. There are plenty of websites that can give you an approximate geo-location for an IP address. But without a court order, it will NOT personally identify the user.
Posted by:
Shriguru Nayak
21 Feb 2011
Hi,
I am doing a project for academic purpose, which locates the visitors of a website and clusters them in a map.
Above, you have mentioned that all the ISP's information is stored in "WHOIS database".
How can I access that database through my program. Can I use YQL? Is there any other API's avaiable?
or Can you please provide some links which I can go through?
Thanks you in advance!
Posted by:
Computer Help
27 Feb 2011
with all the mobile IP addys its hard to track. Also using a proxy server will be good. As long as it not in your country.
Posted by:
Lucian
16 Mar 2011
This website can give you the location of an IP Address: http://www.ipgp.net
Posted by:
Jonathan
23 Mar 2011
Hi
Here's the thing. Today my laptop was stolen from my car. Later I talked to my friend and he told me that I was online on skype. Then we tried calling it but it didn't pick up. However I'm pretty sure we got the IP my stolen computer was using. I tried calling the network provider but they refused to give me the address which I understand. Then I called the police and gave them the IP but i highly doubt that they will care the least.
My question is now: Is there any way to find the physical address myself, only using the IP?
EDITOR'S NOTE: As I've said, not without a court order. Time to change all your passwords...
Posted by:
Jim
30 Apr 2011
Someone found out my name, city of residence all from an anonymous post on a internet message board. HOW DID THEY GET THAT INFORMATION?? Everything I read tells me my IP address doesnt reveal that information but somehow they got it. HOW? How can I stop this from happening in the future??
EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim, your IP address doesn't reveal your name (most likely you did so when posting your comment), but it can (sometimes) give an approximate geographic location.