I am *really* not a computer guy, and this question has kinda been on my mind since I found out about doxxing/IP grabbers ages ago. I didn’t really care too much, since I am not a fan of putting people in danger over twitter like a dickhead, but can someone tell me generally why it’s a serious issue if someone leaks your IP?
Since this sounds as if I’m trying to doxx someone: I’m posting after searching my own IP & I found that most websites pinpointed my address to a different country entirely?? (Still a country next to mines, but definitely more than far away enough for me to care if mines were leaked). Famous people who get doxxed online always move away for safety, so I’m really confused why that is when the website I used to check my own IP address on a bunch of places online at once usually all ended up being a whole country off.
Even though I shouldn’t need to state this outright; **don’t give a step-by-step guide on how to doxx people**. I don’t want to know that. I just want to know why IP grabbing is such a big deal and how doxxing is possible vaguely in a way that forces people to move cities.
In: Technology
Somebody knowing your IP address alone won’t do much harm.
People could use it to DDOS or otherwise attack or block a person, but only for a short time.
The vast majority of people have dynamic IP addresses, meaning that your IP address today will be different from the one you have tomorrow.
IP addresses are bound to the internet provider and the internet provider will give out a set of addresses in the same general area.
There are databases online that you can use to look up an IP and learn which ISP uses it and in which area.
This is how those stupid banner ads work that reference your approximate location and for example promise single women or jobs in a town close to you.
This is the limit of what most people can do with an IP-address.
If you are law enforcement or involved in a civil lawsuit and a judge issues a subpoena or similar they can ask the internet provider for their logs of who they gave that IP-address at a given date. And your ISP will have billing information and know exactly who pays for the internet and where they send the bills.
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