What is my IP address and why to protect it for privacy – Simple layman’s terms

As a non-IT person, most of us do not need detailed technical information about things. Sometimes all we are looking for is just plain English explanation in layman's terms.
Here I will help you to understand what is your IP address and why to protect it for privacy.  You can also check the video below if you wish to listen to this article than read through.



Do you give your house address to every person you meet? 

Did you know you are giving away your location and device information to the websites you are visiting, and strangers on the internet who can potentially misuse your information? It’s time to Learn about IP Address


What is an IP Address?

You might have heard the term IP address before. But like me probably you too didn’t care to know much about it. Let’s understand how it works. Simply put, your house has an address on the street, your device has an IP address on the network. IP stands for Internet Protocol.

A courier or a parcel reaches your house as they have your address. Similarly, when you browse a website, the server sends the data to the unique IP address of your device and hence you see the browsed information. It facilitates in a two-way communication between your device and the host device from where the data will be send to your device.

Now let us try this practically. Visit the website Myipaddress.com it will show you your current IP address. Yes, that set of numbers is your virtual address on the internet.


Static & Dynamic IP address

There are two types of IP address. Static IP is like your permanent address. It never changes. Dynamic IP address is like staying on rent. Its temporary and changes each time your device access the internet. 

Mobile devices don’t have static IP address since it can connect to both 3G/4G network and WiFI, each time the IP will be different.

Things to worry is the information about you and your device the Static IP reveals. 
Who knew that by browsing to a website, you share information such as your city, region, country, continent, Postal code, internet service provider, screen resolution, Operating System, installed plugins!

Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself by visiting the site www.Infobyip.com. If you glance through the results, you will see all your digital footprint information.

These information helps the websites to Track you build up a history of information about your activities. It also means hackers can also track what you’re doing online.  Advertisers can track you, and target you with advertisements Due to this it sometimes becomes important to stay anonymous.

You may also like to my other article about IP address. Know why to hide your IP address and it's Benefits – layman’s terms


P.S. I’m not affiliated to any of the websites shown in this video. Please feel free to use any website that shows you IP related information.

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