IP Addresses - Trading Privacy for Crime Prevention
If you’ve been on the internet for any period of time you’ve likely hear the term IP address. IP address stands for Internet Protocol address. The Ip address is a number that is unique to each computer or system that is connecting to the world wide web. The sole purpose of having such a specific address is for tracking each individual internet connection. It identified the user in much the same way a telephone number or street address would in the offline world. A network is used in which electronic devices can communicate with each other. An IP Addresses will be configured like this: 127.72.16.137.
Thanks to IP addresses, your computer can be easily identified in particular situations. For example, most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a database in which they store each of their client’s IP addresses.
The IP Address and Privacy
This practice, however, begs the question: If your IP address can be identified then how is your privacy protected? Do ISPs infringe on your personal rights and invade your privacy in this manner? There are many who regard it as an invasion of privacy, and thus consider the use of IP addresses to identify individual computers is morally and constitutionally wrong.
Crime Prevention
On the other hand, IP addresses qualify as a necessary evil because not only do they identify each unique computer, but can also track certain activities that are being carried out on the internet. In this sense, they help prevent or even stop incidences of cyber-crime.
Computer Viruses
The spread of computer viruses is a case in point. They present an increasingly large problem to the internet community. These viruses can and do inflict irreversible damage to computer systems, and ruin hard drives on which important data has been stored. Through the use of IP addresses, the origin of a given computer virus can be easily tracked and the person who wrote and released the virus script can be brought to justice.
IP addresses are not going anywhere. They have become a very important part of our online presence and security. Having a system that tracks the millions of online users is essential to help identify users all over the internet. The safety and security this type of tracking provides is a fair trade-off for the privacy we lose in the process.