5

All the other questions I have seen here focus on the security implications of IP addresses. I'm interested about the privacy implications.

In my opinion, static IP addresses for home connections (where you usually don't need to host any services) should be avoided, because they will make you easily recognizable on the internet. A static IP will uniquely identify you. A dynamic IP, on the other hand, will not identify you, although the address will probably only vary within a range. To me the impact on privacy of a static IP address is huge, but some other people don't seem to care at all (and love static IPs because they want to host stuff at home).

So the question is:

  • What are the privacy implications of having a home connection with a static IP address?
  • Should we prefer home connections with dynamic IPs if possible?
  • Would a VPN be a solution to mitigate the loss of privacy caused by a static IP address, or not? What other solutions would be effective?
Improve this question
2
  • 1
    Who are you trying to keep private from? If it's the government, then I'm pretty sure they could check the ISP's logs to verify who had a specific IP address at a specific time.
    – Fire Quacker
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 16:01
  • @FireQuacker, nobody in general, I'm just considering the impact on privacy and the possible mitigations when comparing the two options (static IP vs dynamic IP). Of course the government is out of the question.
    – reed
    Commented Dec 7, 2020 at 16:08

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
5

As an example, in GDPR, an IP address is considered PII. It can identify a person during a sequence of interactions.

A static IP simply extends the impact of that. Anyone who can correlate activity with IP could correlate a larger set of interactions to a particular household.

Should you prefer dynamic IPs? You need to run your risk analysis on that issue.

Anything that would break up an IP would solve the static IP problem, by definition. But only within the scope of the problems of having a static IP.

Improve this answer
1

Many residential ISP's rarely assign new IP addresses, regardless of whether the subscriber has arranged for a static IP address or not. For example, my ISP (in the US) is Comcast, and I've had the same IP address for over a year, even though I never requested a static IP address.

Notwithstanding, even with a dynamic IP address that changes frequently, service providers whose websites you login to can instantly correlate you with your new IP address after it changes, once you login to their site. As we all know, there are companies on the web that offer lots of awesome free services (e.g. email, storage, documents, etc.) that you access by logging into their site - and the business model of these companies is to profit by collecting as much data as they can on you as you use their awesome free services, then they monetize this data however they can. It's not out of the realm of possibility that such companies could share your IP address with others, once they learn it by you logging into their site, for the right price.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .