Recently, major Internet platforms have successively displayed the user's IP territory, and the user cannot choose to turn this function on or off.
The first to be discovered are many accounts that are certified as "local information bloggers" and "overseas information bloggers", and the IP territory does not match the data address.
Some people support the platform to force the display of user IP territory in the foreground, they believe that some people will converge, at least not pretend to be in a certain place, impersonating others also has an additional discriminating element, and the news that occurs in the "pseudo-scene" will also be self-defeating; there are also many doubts, thinking that they are now equivalent to running naked on the street, and personal privacy will continue to be eroded.
It should be noted that the basis for the connection between the user and the platform is ip, and the IP address of both the sender and receiver must be public, and the user's IP information will be recorded by the platform server. This is why even if the user turns off the positioning of the device, the platform can still get the IP territory information.
Source: Unsplash
At present, these platforms expose the user's IP address home, not the IP address, and generally only label it to the provincial range.
In October last year, "showing the user's IP territory" was reflected in the "Provisions on the Administration of Internet User Account Name Information (Draft for Comment)" issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China. It is required that the Internet user account service platform shall display the account IP address territorial information on the Internet user account information page in a conspicuous manner, and the domestic users should be marked to the province (region, city), and the overseas account IP address territory information should be marked to the country (region).
People are worried that IP will leak their privacy, worry that someone will accurately locate individuals through this information, or pry more information along with it.
IP, the house number of the network world
In reality, people mark geographic locations with longitude and latitude; in cyberspace, people rely on IP addresses.
This is a typical IPv4 address, divided into four parts with a total of eight digits| Wikipedia
An IP address is an address defined by the IP protocol. The IP protocol here is the TCP/IP communication protocol.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when people first tried to connect to the Internet, the Internet was not as dominant as it is today, and the World Wide Web (WWW) was the only one. At that time, different types of networks such as computer science research networks, ALOHA networks, in-time networks, and ARPA networks appeared, and the exchange of information between them became a problem.
As a result, some people began to study the "language" that computer networks commonly adhere to. Finally, in 1978, Stanford University professor Vint Cerf and project manager Rob Kahn developed the TCP/IP communication protocol. At this point, all computers on the network can "talk".
The two inventors of TCP/IP | Wikipedia
By 1983, the predecessor of the Internet, ARPANET, was officially running TCP/IP.
Among them, IP determines the addressing method, the encapsulation structure of the packet, and finally transmits the data from the source host to the destination host. People often compare IP addresses to house numbers on the Internet, and A in this room, you can only "visit the door" if you know the "house number" of B.
Arguably, the Internet is essentially the sum of the visits of one IP address to another. Here, ip addresses are the most basic unit, with every networked device.
Ip addresses are often assigned, in the sense that the user does not own it.
Source: Unsplash
Specifically, when you connect to broadband in your home, your carrier assigns an IP address to that broadband, and any device connected to it shares an IP address. When you're using a mobile signal to access the network, the IP address is assigned by a nearby mobile base station, and the IP of the base station you get will change as you move.
In addition, there is also a way to network through the Internet data center (IDC), compared to mobile signals and broadband, the IP number segment used in the IDC computer room is more fixed.
Whether it is a carrier, a base station, or a data center, there is a real geographical affiliation, so the IP addresses they issue are also like telephone area codes, indicating these territories. For example, 220.181.22.1 is for Telecom in Beijing, and 210.22.84.3 is for China Unicom in Shanghai. The territory of these IP addresses is easy to search for.
To sum up, in reality, people know your house number, you can directly find your home, but in cyberspace, knowing your IP address this "house number", may not be able to find the specific location of the device. Because IP can be moved and changed.
For example, many companies that attach importance to data security will require employees to use "proxies" when working in non-encrypted network environments such as hotels, which is equivalent to intercepting data in the middle of the way, so that the destination of the data becomes another address, and then transmits it to you from that address. In addition, using public Wi-Fi can also cause hiding of specific device IPs.
"Exposed" information, one more
People have exposed too much information on the Internet, and now there is more IP territory.
This time, each network platform discloses the IP territory, and one of the concerns stems from the invasion of privacy. As a popular commentary claimed, starting with IP, followed by areas, streets, neighborhoods, building numbers, house numbers, and ID cards, people are worried that privacy is being eroded step by step.
If you only look at IP addresses, this concern may be redundant. Even if you know the specific address number, the query mainly displays information such as the country/ region / city, longitude and latitude, IP host name, Internet service provider and so on. User names, accurate addresses, telephone numbers, and other information that can be directly targeted to individuals is difficult to obtain by IP address alone.
Source: Unsplash
Wang Chunwei, deputy director of the Legal Professional Committee of the Beijing Network Industry Association, said that at present, the scope of IP attribution is only displayed to provinces or countries, and there is no direct pointing, nor can it be associated with a specific individual based on the IP of a province.
But platforms don't just grasp IP information, they get a variety of data, can still restore most of a person's information.
Taking a mainstream platform as an example, its user agreement shows that the information it obtains from users includes user identity and authentication information (such as natural person identity, account number, basic information), use process information (such as location, contact) and device attribute information. If the user uses a specific service, further information such as social security number, facial recognition features, payment account number, etc. will be collected accordingly.
In addition, the content, friendship relationships, and activity traces posted by individuals on the platform also belong to the scope of platform information collection.
Social platforms are usually anonymous foreground and real-name for the backstage. The Provisions on the Administration of Internet User Account Name Information, which came into effect in 2015, for the first time put forward the "online real-name system", that is, Internet information service providers are required to register an account after passing real identity information authentication in accordance with the principle of "real name in the background and voluntary at the front desk". Zuo Xiaodong, a professor at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Science and Technology of China, said in an interview with the Southern Metropolis Daily: "Due to the implementation of the online real-name system on the mainland, every netizen may be accurately traced back – which also means that if there is a problem, measures can be taken through post-event administrative regulatory measures, without the need to disclose the geographical location in advance." ”
In fact, in addition to privacy, there is a concern that it is the territorial information plus other information that adds other meanings to the display of IP territoriality. For example, it promotes "regional blackness" and presets statements through territorial information. What's more, the public IP territory did not have the consent of the user, and the legal basis that could be adhered to did not officially take effect.
Source: Unsplash
Leaking privacy and infringing on personal rights and interests has always been a comprehensive gain.
How can I protect myself
Yang Caiguang, a lawyer at Liaoning Changxin Law Firm, said in an interview with Southern Metropolis Daily that the information disclosed by IP addresses belongs to the category of personal information and does not involve user privacy rights.
In the era of website forums, people could speak without logging in and identify each other by IP addresses. Before that, there was a third-party auxiliary software based on Tencent QQ, Polyps, one of its biggest features was to obtain the IP address of the other party's friend and convert it into an Internet area.
But today, people's desire to express and the magnitude of release on the Internet are not the same. In a sense, IP is not a completely independent data, it is often strongly bound to people's life information.
In some tutorials that introduce "human flesh", malicious people only need to use a packet grabbing tool and then make a phone call to the other party, and the latter's IP information is "phished". Then, they will use the IP query website to roughly locate the IP, and then import the longitude and latitude analysis website, and so on... Then go to the relevant website to check which platforms the victims have registered, and continue to collect information on each platform.
Compared to the true orientation of the IP exposure victim, people sometimes share photos with precise location information. Because when they take pictures on their mobile phones, the camera often turns on the geographical location by default.
So, hide your location when sharing photos, turn off the "Exact Location" option in settings, and avoid malicious people knowing your exact location from just one photo.
In iOS 15, the image sharing page can uncheck "All photo data" | provided by the author
In addition, on search engines and online platforms, first "human flesh" yourself, pay attention to what information you have exposed, and try to delete the information you do not want to expose; on each platform, you can use different user names and profiles, and passwords are avoided to be set to the same format and content.
Source: Unsplash
Finally, beware of software from unknown sources, avoid installing malware, once invaded, including personal accounts, passwords, photos, shopping records, trip records and other personal privacy will be stolen.
Hackers will integrate and analyze the leaked user data, centralize and archive it together, build a "social work library", and use it for profit. Inquiring into and building a social work bank is an act expressly prohibited by the state, and criminal liability is borne if the circumstances are serious. However, at present, there are phenomena that show that the social work library is still active in the underground industrial chain of the Internet.
bibliography
[1] https://www.sohu.com/a/532925433_161795
[2] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/NXMSM1REPlUraj7aC81b5w
[3] https://www.modb.pro/db/115569
[4] https://www.netspotapp.com/cn/blog/ip-addresses/what-is-my-ip-address.html
[5] https://www.geekpark.net/news/258146
Author: Ruiyue, Biu
EDIT: Sleeper
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