What Can Someone Do With Your IP Address? (+ 4 Ways to Hide It)

Your IP address is a bit like a passport for your devices. It's a unique identifier that tells websites who you are and where you're from, allowing you to travel through networks and exchange information with other devices. Losing a passport is a big deal, but what about 'losing' your IP address?

Read on to find out why IP addresses are so important, what they're normally used for, and what can happen if they fall into the wrong hands. You'll also learn about ways to hide and change your IP address, if necessary.

Every device that's connected to the internet has an Internet Protocol (IP) address. It's a unique identifier that enables communication and data transfer.

It works much like a physical address: just like a house needs an address to receive letters, a computer needs an IP address to send or receive information over the internet. Without these addresses, it would be nearly impossible to track billions of data exchanges happening online.

Essentially, an IP address is a string of numbers separated by periods (IPv4) or colons (IPv6). The main difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is address size: while IPv4 uses a 32-bit address, IPv6 uses a 128-bit address. Therefore, IPv6 IP addresses are a lot longer – and because IPv6 offers more combinations, there are lots more possibilities for unique IP addresses, solving the issue of IP address exhaustion.

Besides IPv4 and IPv6, there are other ways to classify email addresses, such as “public” vs “private” or “static” vs “dynamic”. Check out our article to learn more about the different types of IP addresses and how they work:

It's just a string of digits, but your IP address contains quite a bit of information about you. While it doesn't reveal specific personal details like your name or physical address, it does offer some general information about your online activities and geographical location.

As you can see, your IP address can reveal some information about you. How about a demonstration? Our Browser Privacy Check reveals which traces you or your browser leave on the web, partly through your IP address.

Of course, this kind of tracking isn't always a bad thing. It can improve the user experience on certain websites, provide you with more relevant ads and search results, and it's generally just part of going online. That's why many people don't mind a bit of IP-snooping from legitimate businesses.

But besides general privacy concerns, there is always the possibility that your IP address lands in the hands of someone who's up to no good. The question is: what can anyone even do with it?

That really depends on who we're talking about here. After all, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate entities who can use your IP address for all sorts of purposes, some of which you might find objectionable. On top of that, there are malicious actors who might use your IP address to attack or exploit you.

Let's look at both:

It's not just cybercriminals who take an interest in our IP addresses. Governments and corporations find a lot of use for our digital identifiers – for better or worse. Here are some examples:

Governments and corporations are one thing – but what can hackers and scammers do with your IP address? Let's take a look:

First of all, relax: even in the hands of the ill-intentioned, your IP address alone usually isn't enough to cause substantial damage. If someone is specifically targeting you, however, your IP address can be exploited as part of broader cyberattacks.

By getting hold of your IP address, a malicious actor could:

The potential misuse of your IP address may sound frightening, but it's important to remember that having someone's IP address alone does not open a straightforward pathway to severe harm.

Most online platforms have robust security measures to prevent such attacks. Below, we'll explore various ways to further safeguard your IP address and, by extension, your online presence.

You can't keep your IP address a secret – and you shouldn't have to. Without IP addresses, the internet would collapse, they're a fundamental building block of the digital world. You don't always have to share it with everyone, however, and there are ways to hide and protect your IP address from certain actors, be it governments, corporations, or hackers.

Keeping your IP address secure isn't necessarily about hiding or changing it, but ensuring that it's only accessible when absolutely necessary. Here are some precautionary measures:

There are also ways to actively change your IP address – not just for protection, but also to bypass restriction like geoblocking. Here are your main options:

Depending on what type of IP address you're assigned, changing it might be as simple as restarting your router. Here's where the difference between dynamic and static IPs comes into play:

You can think of a VPN as a kind of tunnel between your device and the website you're trying to visit. As an intermediary, it diverts your traffic via its own servers, changing your IP address in the process. That way, the websites you're visiting don't see your IP address, but that of the VPN server.

By connecting to servers in specific countries, you can use this VPN tunnel to bypass geo-restrictions and access specific content on streaming servers, or to evade government censorship, such as China's Great Firewall.

Be aware that VPNs don't ensure perfect privacy either. Instead, they just add another layer to your connection – and instead of the websites you're visiting, your IP address is now visible to your VPN provider. That's why you should only use reputable VPN services. You can use our reviews and comparisons to find the best provider for your needs:

Similar to VPNs, proxies act as intermediaries between your devices and the internet. Each request is processed via the proxy server, hiding your original IP address. In contrast to VPNs, however, proxies don't generally encrypt your data, which makes them less secure overall.

Tor is a secure browser that reroutes your traffic through several servers. When you visit websites via Tor, it's extremely challenging for anyone to trace back to your original IP address. The downside of this security mechanism? The Tor browser tends to be quite a bit slower than regular browsers.

What can someone do with your IP address? Turns out, quite a bit – and that's not usually a bad thing. IP addresses are a fundamental building block of the internet and play an instrumental role in ensuring seamless communication between devices across the globe.

But like any tool, IP addresses can be used for beneficial and malicious purposes. Governments can use them to fight crime, or to spy on their citizens. Companies can use them to streamline their services, or to invade your privacy and keep building their data empires. Cybercriminals may use them to hack or scam you.

In the end, you can't keep your IP address a secret, and even in the wrong hands, an exposed IP address alone usually not enough to do real damage. As long as you take basic online precautions, you should be reasonably safe. And if you need to hide or change your IP for specific purposes, for example to evade geoblocking, you can use tools like VPNs.