The number that you see in the greeting is the IP Address that your browser presented to this
web page. This article is about what that means to you if you are concerned about Internet privacy.
Who is 38.107.191.82?
If you run the command whois on an IP address you will get something like the following:
foo@bar:~$ whois 68.100.100.100
Cox Communications Inc. NETBLK-NV-RDC-68-100-0-0 (NET-68-100-0-0-1)
68.100.0.0 - 68.100.255.255
Cox Communications Inc. COX-ATLANTA-2 (NET-68-96-0-0-1)
68.96.0.0 - 68.111.255.255
This tells you that the person assigned the address of 68.100.100.100 has Cox Communications Inc. for an ISP.
If you can't run the whois command on your computer you can use the web based whois at dns411.com. Most IP addresses float but
they can stick to you for a long time. I've had the one that I am currently assigned for six months.
Where is 38.107.191.82?
If you use a geo locator it can (not always) tell you the geographic location of the address.
In the example above (68.100.100.100); Fairfax, Virginia USA. Ever wonder how a web page can present advertising for your location? That's how.
Who knows about 38.107.191.82?
Your ISP. They know who you are and where you live (billing information). They have a log of
all the webites that you browse.
The government, because all they have to do is ask your ISP and they will turn over the log entries for your activity.
The websites that you visit. They see it as you can see it all over this page.
The owner of a proxy server that you use. (More on this later)
Everyone who you've sent an email to. (More on this later)
Proxy servers, hiding behind 70.85.16.16
A proxy server is between you and the web. If log onto a corporate network from home, their firewall acts
as a proxy server and if you look at this webpage you will see their IP address, not yours. There are a number of proxy servers for web surfing on the web. Just search on
proxy server. This one is
typical of the ones that knuckleheads use to bypass corporate or institutional filtering to play with their
myspace while they are being paid to work. Notice that it scrambles the URL that you are viewing.
This one is nice with restictions (can not 'POST'), but if you
read the Terms and Conditions, Abuse Policy, and Privacy Policy you will see that "You should assume
that we will comply with court orders or subpoenas demanding log files entries, as we do not
know our users and therefore cannot mount a legal challenge." Try looking at this page with it and see what a proxy server does.
This one (anonymouse.org) claims that it maintains your privacy; no logs, etc. Use your own discernment.
Wireless Hot-Spots
Your local hot spot at a coffee shop or book store is essentially a proxy server since you are not using your own ISP who can identify you.
There may be some privacy in that. If you have your own wireless router then you know that you can set it up to accept or block users by
MAC address. The MAC address identifies your computer's wireless card and the router can see it.
Can your hot spot log that? Do they? Are you on camera with a time-stamp? Having said that, if you aren't doing something illegal then it might be more private than your
own ISP.
Chances are high that you can see a neighbour's unencrypted wireless router. It might be tempting to use it as a proxy server (everyone sees their IP address when you surf),
but it probably is against the law. If you are using it to commit a crime the computer forensic guys will be looking at you too (they know about wireless theft). Most people
are computer illiterates, but what if your neighbour is commiting crimes and want their lawyer to be able to say, "Someone must have been stealing their Internet."
Now you are a suspect in their crimes. I don't recommend it.
Email header information
If you view source of an email so that you can see the routing, you will see the IP address of the sender. If you were using a proxy server when you sent the email your email
header provides an artefact that you (email address) were using it (IP address) complete with a time-stamp. Email is a big privacy buster.
It might look like:
"Received: from [38.107.191.82] by web13069.mail.gq1.yahoo.com via HTTP" or "Received: from yourMachineName ([38.107.191.82])"
The only exception that I have observed is that a Blackberry has a different IP address for the browser function and the email function, and of course, Email proxies.
What does this mean to you?
Privacy is something that you have to work at since by default you don't have any. Privacy statements are fond of saying that they don't keep personally identifiable
information about visitors. No? The have log files that identify your ISP who can determine your name and billing address. And people worry about government web sites
using cookies.