Do most websites log or know the user’s IP address? Is the public IP address required to visit any website and therefore it’s “public” online?
In: Technology
An IP address functions just like the address on a mailing envelop.
You need an IP address to do anything online, otherwise the website doesn’t know where to send its data.
Almost all websites log IP addresses and a variety of other information like the Browsers being used.
Whether or not anyone actually bothers to look at any of it though is an entirely different question. The sheer amount of data is such that most of it just becomes noise.
Larger websites use devices like WAFs (Web Application Firewall) and a SEIM (Security Event and Incident Management) basically a log analyzer. Basically you dump all the logs into it and it analyzes trends and pulls anything that’s worth your attention.
Hiding your IP address online is also relatively easy these days using VPN services.
Do you actually need to hide your IP address?
Only if you have something to hide.
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