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
On its own, your IP address can be used to figure out your city, or, for large cities, neighborhood, and ISP. This isn’t really that much information, but it does help to narrow down who somebody is. In most cases, your ISP will vary periodically, though the exact rules will vary by ISP, service plan, and even possibly location.
Your IP address is also basically public information – any website or server you access gets it. The only way to hide it is to use VPNs, but, even then, your VPN will know your IP address – its the final server that it gets hidden from.
One important thing is that you likely access multiple services using the same IP address, meaning if your IP address gets leaked across multiple services, I can possibly link those accounts together to give me even more information about you that you might not want me to know. This process is also made even easier if you use the same username across services as then I don’t even need your IP address across the services.
When combined with other data, your IP address can be used for doxing, but on its own, its not enough. Notably, if you give your name (even just first name!) out to somebody and they manage to link that to your IP address, it can really narrow the search down to only a handful of people. With a username that hints at your real name, or just giving your real name on a public forum, it becomes much easier.
>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??
There are two likely answers:
1. You are using a VPN, which will mask the IP address the website sees. That is basically the sole benefit of using VPNs.
2. You are using a cellular or wifi connection that are crossing locations.
1. This is much more likely if you live near a border or major shipping lane. 5G has a range of about 3mi/5km, while 4G has about 4mi/6.5km
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