Summary: When it comes to protecting your online privacy, knowing about your IP address is the first step toward securing your online activity. Your IP address is like a public location that you share with every website that you visit, and it tells a lot about your device information. It can determine your device location, host name, the internet service provider (ISP), and so on. Masking or hiding your IP address is an important step to take if you want to protect your online privacy. WhatIsMyIPAddress.com is a simple tool that you can use online to check your IP address information and determine whether you are protected from online tracking and other things that are trying to spy your online activity.
Online privacy has become a big concern among most internet users because today, most people are storing their vital information online. Lots of important activities are done on the internet, such as shopping, banking, socializing, storing files, and much more. So, it is becoming more and more important for anyone to protect their online privacy since any leak of their online privacy can mean a big repercussion for their life. In fact, there have been various cases where individuals or businesses suffer big losses, whether financially or emotionally, due to the leaks of their online information.
The first step to keep your privacy protected online is to ensure that you are using a protected network while browsing the internet. You have to ensure that nobody, including the government, the websites you visit, or hackers, can determine your exact IP information while browsing the internet. You can mask your IP address by using various tools and services that help protect your privacy, such as by using VPN, Tor browser, secure proxy, or secure DNS services. Then, you have to ensure that your IP address remains protected throughout your browsing sessions.
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com is a simple online tool that you can access to check your IP information. With this tool, you will know whether you are browsing with your real IP address or whether you have successfully masked it with a different IP address provided by your VPN, secure DNS, secure proxy, or Tor services. It is also important to know that even though you have used a VPN service, your real IP address might still be leaked due to various reasons. This is why you should use the tool like WhatIsMyIPAddress.com from time to time to check whether your IP address is still protected or not. To learn more about this invaluable online privacy tool, we have interviewed Chris Parker, Founder of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com (CGP Holdings, Inc.).
A Little Background Story about WhatIsMyIPAddress.com
As a founder of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, Chris Parker himself didn’t expect his simple IP lookout tool could be used by millions of users today. He started his website as a simple IP lookout tool that he could use to check the IP address of his office. However, after sharing the tool online so that it can be accessed by anyone from anywhere, he couldn’t believe that his IP lookout tool was starting to get popular among thousands and then millions of users worldwide. Nowadays, WhatIsMyIPAddress.com has been transformed from just a simple IP lookout tool into an online privacy resource that helps millions of users protect their privacy online.
Chris Parker told us the story of how WhatIsMyIPAddress.com was first created,
“WhatIsMyIPAddress.com was launched in early 2000, initially just to help me find my own office IP address. Soon afterward, I shared the website and IP lookup solution with the world. Over time and much to my surprise, the entire world started visiting the website—first by the thousands, then by the millions. Today, WhatIsMyIPAddress.com is one of the top 3,000 sites in the world, with more than six million visits monthly to the site. I am currently shaping WhatIsMyIPAddress.com into a resource for those concerned about online privacy, security, and freedom.”
Common Online Privacy Threats for the Average Internet Users
While internet technologies keep on advancing year after year, many entities use these technologies to spy on the average internet users. While what they are doing might not be illegal, but still, it concerns the average internet users nowadays because they feel that their browsing activities are no longer private. Governments, ISPs, advertisers, and the websites that they visit might try to collect the data regarding their online activities for various purposes, such as to enhance their way in advertising their products, improve their website features, or any other purposes. These are what considered threats to the average users’ online privacy.
Chris Parker explained about the common threats many people face when they are online nowadays,
“Today people are often concerned about what their ISPs, governments, and advertisers are able to learn about them through the sites that they visit, the content they consume, and the purchases that they make online. It’s not that they are doing anything illegal, but they don’t want entities compiling databases of their activities.”
The Reason Behind People’s Concerns about Their IP-Related Information
WhatIsMyIPAddress.com is a website used by millions of people every month, which offers the information about their IP address. The reason why many people need to know their IP-related information is not just to learn about the IP address that they used to browse online, but they also want to make sure that such information won’t get leaked. Nowadays, people are developing awareness regarding how their IP-related information are being used by various entities or third-parties, and how they don’t want such entities to keep tracking down their online activities. As Chris Parker said, many people want to remain anonymous in their online activities and limit third-party tracking as much as possible,
“People are becoming more aware of how the internet works and how information about them is being used. With that new awareness, many just don’t want all of their online activities being tracked and recorded. They want some degree of being anonymous.”
Common Misconceptions Related to IP Address
While IP address information does shows you some degrees of information regarding your device, as well as your location, there are still many people who don’t understand what it means. In fact, there are still many people who are still too worried when their IP information got leaked or shown publicly, since they thought that it would mean that all their private information might be at risk. It is generally not true. Such type of paranoia is still quite common among the average internet users.
The truth is that even though you are using your real IP address to browse online, it won’t automatically make you a target of online privacy threats. Such information can only show your general information related to your device, which is mostly not too accurate. People can know where you are, what ISP you are using, and some other related information. But, in order to pinpoint the accurate location for your device, you need to use a legal system in order to do that. Chris Parker explained about this,
“TV shows and movies give the impression that anyone, anywhere, can pinpoint you and your location, based on your IP address, in seconds. In most cases that just isn’t true. A general location is often almost instantly available, but service addresses and locations require the involvement of the legal system.”
Some Other Tools Available on WhatIsMyIPAddress.com
Aside from providing the tool to look up your IP address and show you the related information regarding your IP address, WhatIsMyIPAddress.com also offers other tools that can be used to further protect your online privacy. For instance, this website now offers the tool that allows you to check your email address and determine whether it is involved in a data breach or not. There are other planned tools that will be released in the future, such as the tool for website owners to determine whether their DNS records are configured properly or not. As the founder of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, Chris Parker said that he would perfect the existing tools that are available on the website, as well as add more tools in the future. To conclude our interview, this is what he said regarding his future plan for WhatIsMyIPAddress.com,
“We’re always working to make our existing tool better, as well as launching new tools. We recently launched a tool to check if your email address has been involved in a data breach. We’ll be launching a tool, in the fall of 2019, to help website owners make sure their DNS records are configured correctly.”
Today, WhatIsMyIPAddress.com has been transformed into a good resource that people can use to learn about how to stay private online. There are some good tools that you can use to ensure all your online privacy in check, as well as articles you can read on how to protect your online privacy further. As with the basic IP lookout tool, there is more related information that you can get related to your IP address, including Geolocation information that is integrated with the Google Maps system.