# The internet and you - today's lesson: IP Trackers



## Clark Kent (Nov 23, 2007)

*The internet and you - today's lesson: IP Trackers
By SID - Sat, 24 Nov 2007 00:30:28 GMT
Originally Posted at: Nephrites Citadel*
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_Long story short I posted this to my lj a little after I received what could be termed a veiled threat from someone.  Thought I'd post here to see if anyone liked the simplistic explanation of it in its sarcastic Mr. Rogers-like tone. _

Information is all around us, most people don't know where to find it.  

Unfortunately even more don't realize how much they freely give away when visiting a website or other related applications on teh intarwebs.  Some don't care, some are oblivious to it, some even react negatively/ignorant to teh workings of teh intarwebs and choose not to be informed yet lash out.

Many site owners (raises hand) use benign trackers and site statistics services to gather information on how people are getting to the site, what pages are most popular and even what type of browser and screen resolution are commonly used.  All these tools are handy to have in testing out what a site looks like to different people or even focusing resources to what attracts visitors.

This is done through what is called IP Tracking, or Internet Protocol.  In easy/brief terms an IP, when termed as an address, is like your computer's version of a license plate as it travels around online.  Unlike a car's license plate that only certain people have legal access to its origin (police looking up owner of license plate and getting home address, etc), an IP address can identify a wealth of information about a visitor if someone wanted to look up a little more info.

This is a valid and accepted research tool and variants of this kind of tracker are available in numerous free formats through a simple google search.

Example, a quick viewing of a daily round up of IP traces and where people were visiting (perhaps an lj entry, external article linking to site, someone posting a weblink,etc) can yield interesting results.  I gained a friend who linked to an article of mine that we both agreed on... I also caught someone inexplicably linking my domain to their fetish site, though there is nothing to stop them from doing so, further investigation broke down that person's online alias and put the pieces together.  So long story short, it can be a handy investigative tool.

Those not wishing to expose that they use (as possible example) Firefox 2 Browser using egateNETWORKS Inc. to connect to teh intarwebs on a computer running Windows 2000 with a 800x600 screen resolution in Toronto are encouraged to possibly learn to hide their IP if they don't like to broadcast their info on teh webs.

That said, if someone out there is trying to imply I'm to face consequences for accessing publicly available information left behind by that person, I would suggest they...stop. 

Oh, and the hits keep coming 


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