Your IP address:

City:

Provider:

Well, what does that mean?

An IP address, or Internet Protocol address, is a number chain that is assigned to every computer that the computer then uses when it accesses the internet. Online, your presence is detected by websites not through you as an individual, but rather the computer with which you are using the internet.

IP addresses allow websites to send information to you over the web, so without them accessing the internet would be impossible. There is no one online without an IP address, as they are our primary identifying tool and serve as both a connector between networks and hosts, as well as location identifiers.

The server's knowledge about IP addresses are crucial to the mechanism of data transfer on the Internet and thus it is required in order for the server to function properly and respond to your requests. However, as IPs are often assigned with correlation to geolocation and Internet Service Providers, servers may be able to deduce your geolocation; thus websites that you visit can track your location and actions to customize their offering. If you search for flights, the website can detect that you are, for example, surfing from a wealthy European country and, therefore, automatically raise the prices.

IPs are also a reliable way to track down and group individuals. As all devices connected to the same network share the same IP, IP addresses are a strong, device-independent identifier, meaning that using another browser or device will not change your IP address. This allows websites to track your actions, collect analytics and other forms of user data from you given that you continue to be connected to the same network throughout your browsing session. As such, it is often used as a strong and persistent parameter in web tracking.