Every website you visit sees your public IP address — replies have to be sent somewhere. What can be learned from it?
What your IP address reveals
- Approximate location. Geolocation databases map IP ranges to places. MaxMind describes this as “an approximate location, not a precise one”, with typical city-level accuracy of 20% to 75%, and gives each result an “accuracy radius” — a circle where the IP is likely to be (MaxMind).
- Your internet provider — the network that the address belongs to.
What it does not reveal
- Your name, email or phone number.
- A precise location — MaxMind says IP geolocation is “not about pinpointing an individual's residence” (MaxMind).
- The content of encrypted traffic: HTTPS uses TLS (RFC 8446) to protect what you send and receive.
Can someone hack me with my IP?
An IP address on its own doesn't give access to your devices. With IPv4, NAT means outside hosts can't start connections to devices behind your router unless you set up port forwarding (RFC 3022). For IPv6, RFC 6092 recommends that home routers don't forward unsolicited inbound connections by default. Keep your router's firmware updated and change its default admin password.
How to change the IP websites see
| Method | How it works |
|---|---|
| VPN | Your traffic goes through the VPN provider's server, so sites see the VPN's IP |
| Tor Browser | Sends your traffic through three random relays in the Tor network (Tor Project) |
| Proxy | Forwards traffic from an app or browser through another server |
| Switch networks | Moving from Wi‑Fi to mobile data uses a different provider's address |
After switching, reload the home page and check both IPv4 and IPv6. A 2015 study of 14 popular commercial VPN services found that the majority suffered from IPv6 traffic leakage (Perta et al., PoPETs 2015).
IPv6 and privacy
IPv6 devices can use temporary addresses that change regularly — by default each is preferred for one day — so a device isn't tracked by a fixed address (RFC 8981). See What is IPv6?