Computers process Internet activity using IP addresses. These are numbers that may follow different representations and formats, but what is commonly used is the dotted decimal form, otherwise known as dotted quad, wherein the IP address is composed of four segments of numbers separated by periods. Although this is how most of us know IPs to be, there are actually other formats that they may come in. Spammers are known to complicate these unique identifiers by having them in octal or hex formats. There are even more ways to make these identifiers more obscure, including those that include many % signs you may have somehow encountered while browsing.
If URL's we type on our address bars actually end up as certain IP addresses to give us access to the sites we want to log on to, there naturally must be something that connects the two together. Providing a system for these important connections were formerly handled by the US Federal government through organizations such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Right now, the coordination of Internet addresses are handled by a private body, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
As far as an Internet user is concerned, his IP address is, of course, what uniquely identifies him in the online community the moment he logs on to the world wide web. While dial-up ISP's provide their subscribers a different IP address to be identified with each time they connect, cable and DSL connections assign a permanent IP address to a user's computer, thus, making that IP address his permanent identity each time he connects to the web. This is where the problem of online privacy begins.
When a user is constantly identified as this IP address, he will likely be the subject of many forms of online abuse which all boil down to one thing. Hacking. Because this user is already known as his IP, websites he visits will now have a way of logging his browsing habits. This is usually done by companies that launch online marketing campaigns. By logging a user's online behavior, it would be easy to determine what type of advertising works for him. While this is normally harmless, it's still an invasion of privacy. In worse cases, a user's IP address is used to trace his computer which now becomes a very susceptible target of hacking. This is particularly dangerous for both public and private corporate systems that handle highly sensitive data.
If URL's we type on our address bars actually end up as certain IP addresses to give us access to the sites we want to log on to, there naturally must be something that connects the two together. Providing a system for these important connections were formerly handled by the US Federal government through organizations such as the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Right now, the coordination of Internet addresses are handled by a private body, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
As far as an Internet user is concerned, his IP address is, of course, what uniquely identifies him in the online community the moment he logs on to the world wide web. While dial-up ISP's provide their subscribers a different IP address to be identified with each time they connect, cable and DSL connections assign a permanent IP address to a user's computer, thus, making that IP address his permanent identity each time he connects to the web. This is where the problem of online privacy begins.
When a user is constantly identified as this IP address, he will likely be the subject of many forms of online abuse which all boil down to one thing. Hacking. Because this user is already known as his IP, websites he visits will now have a way of logging his browsing habits. This is usually done by companies that launch online marketing campaigns. By logging a user's online behavior, it would be easy to determine what type of advertising works for him. While this is normally harmless, it's still an invasion of privacy. In worse cases, a user's IP address is used to trace his computer which now becomes a very susceptible target of hacking. This is particularly dangerous for both public and private corporate systems that handle highly sensitive data.
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