Thousands of people live in a zip code, while hundreds and thousands of people live in a city. We are literally giving away that data for free through our API and database. The creepiness of IP geolocation is mostly a meme.
IP geolocation is mainly used in cybersecurity and marketing analytics. There are many ways to geolocate someone. I once came across a project that could estimate the country a user is from based on their writing style and grammar mistakes. For example, American people sometimes use "should of" instead of "should have". Knowing the geolocation of an IP address isn't super creepy. It's just how things work on the internet.
And you're literally advertising this project as being helpful for targeted ads. So it's pretty clear from the get go that what you consider creepy isn't what I consider creepy. And having done enough reidentification work to scare myself, "thousands of people" might as well be a couple dozen or less. I get why you're defensive and why you think it's not creepy, but calling it a "meme" is insultingingly dismissive.
Just because it's "how things work on the internet" doesn't make its mass collection right. Under the same logic, any side channel attack is just "how it works", and its abuse warrants no ethical question.
I grok and understand your concern. I am not being defensive; I am just trying to provide an explanation. I really enjoy having conversations like this with developers as honestly and empathetically possible.
I apologize if I was rude in any way by saying the word "meme". I saw a sister comment and thought you were being sarcastic. There is a popular meme about "I have your IP address", so I thought you were referencing that. I have had conversations with many young people who were concerned about their IP address being leaked through a game server. Therefore, I try to use humor to alleviate their stress. However, I now realize that this situation was different, and I am sorry for not understanding that.
We provide a service that helps users keep their internet-connected services secure by providing IP metadata information. Are you being attacked by malicious actors? Use our free IP database to identify the location and ASN to block them. Do you want to restrict access to your service to certain regions? Do that for free with our services.
We have the most accurate data available, and yet we offer the most generous free tier. We provide a full accuracy IP database for free, without any range aggregation, and with daily updates and a commercially permissible license. We have built a community forum solely dedicated to answering users' questions. We invest in website tools and open-source tools, all with the goal of helping users maintain the security and functionality of their services.
We do have premium tier services, but if you use our free data as a foundation, you can always replicate those premium features to a reliable degree.
Our IP metadata information is being used in marketing and sales intelligence. It is the same data that you use to protect your internet connected devices, used by our customers to sell you something.
IP metadata information that we provide is a cornerstone of keeping the internet safe and accessible for everyone. That is how things just are. The deepweb is immune to IP meta data information, and that is why it is such a messy and chaotic place.
That is just truth of the internet. We are essential and we prefer to be open about our process and listen to our stakeholders (users + customers + non-users).
For sure. When people work in any industry long enough, it's easy to stop thinking about the basics. E.g., a retail butcher thinks of his work very differently than a cow or a vegan does.
When people work in advertising, they mostly forget that the core of their business is for-profit manipulation of people with little or no regard for truth or the people concerned. But I personally think that's kinda creepy, and only getting more so as it goes from broad manipulation of millions via mass media down to thousands, hundreds, or single individuals.
You might want to unplug your router then. A conceit of being connected to a network is you're connected to the network. If you can see other nodes they can see you.
Is this an accepted usage of the word `conceit`? I love the construction, and it does feel like it belongs, but I'm not finding this usage. https://www.wordnik.com/words/conceit has a bunch of meanings collected from various sources.
I wonder if you meant `concession`.
Also, it's a false dichotomy. One can use VPN or proxies, to limit exposure or to encapsulate it. Of course, you can't get perfect location privacy.
Thousands of people live in a zip code, while hundreds and thousands of people live in a city. We are literally giving away that data for free through our API and database. The creepiness of IP geolocation is mostly a meme.
IP geolocation is mainly used in cybersecurity and marketing analytics. There are many ways to geolocate someone. I once came across a project that could estimate the country a user is from based on their writing style and grammar mistakes. For example, American people sometimes use "should of" instead of "should have". Knowing the geolocation of an IP address isn't super creepy. It's just how things work on the internet.
And you're literally advertising this project as being helpful for targeted ads. So it's pretty clear from the get go that what you consider creepy isn't what I consider creepy. And having done enough reidentification work to scare myself, "thousands of people" might as well be a couple dozen or less. I get why you're defensive and why you think it's not creepy, but calling it a "meme" is insultingingly dismissive.
Just because it's "how things work on the internet" doesn't make its mass collection right. Under the same logic, any side channel attack is just "how it works", and its abuse warrants no ethical question.
I grok and understand your concern. I am not being defensive; I am just trying to provide an explanation. I really enjoy having conversations like this with developers as honestly and empathetically possible.
I apologize if I was rude in any way by saying the word "meme". I saw a sister comment and thought you were being sarcastic. There is a popular meme about "I have your IP address", so I thought you were referencing that. I have had conversations with many young people who were concerned about their IP address being leaked through a game server. Therefore, I try to use humor to alleviate their stress. However, I now realize that this situation was different, and I am sorry for not understanding that.
We provide a service that helps users keep their internet-connected services secure by providing IP metadata information. Are you being attacked by malicious actors? Use our free IP database to identify the location and ASN to block them. Do you want to restrict access to your service to certain regions? Do that for free with our services.
We have the most accurate data available, and yet we offer the most generous free tier. We provide a full accuracy IP database for free, without any range aggregation, and with daily updates and a commercially permissible license. We have built a community forum solely dedicated to answering users' questions. We invest in website tools and open-source tools, all with the goal of helping users maintain the security and functionality of their services.
We do have premium tier services, but if you use our free data as a foundation, you can always replicate those premium features to a reliable degree.
Our IP metadata information is being used in marketing and sales intelligence. It is the same data that you use to protect your internet connected devices, used by our customers to sell you something.
IP metadata information that we provide is a cornerstone of keeping the internet safe and accessible for everyone. That is how things just are. The deepweb is immune to IP meta data information, and that is why it is such a messy and chaotic place.
That is just truth of the internet. We are essential and we prefer to be open about our process and listen to our stakeholders (users + customers + non-users).
2 replies →
For sure. When people work in any industry long enough, it's easy to stop thinking about the basics. E.g., a retail butcher thinks of his work very differently than a cow or a vegan does.
When people work in advertising, they mostly forget that the core of their business is for-profit manipulation of people with little or no regard for truth or the people concerned. But I personally think that's kinda creepy, and only getting more so as it goes from broad manipulation of millions via mass media down to thousands, hundreds, or single individuals.
5 replies →
You might want to unplug your router then. A conceit of being connected to a network is you're connected to the network. If you can see other nodes they can see you.
Is this an accepted usage of the word `conceit`? I love the construction, and it does feel like it belongs, but I'm not finding this usage. https://www.wordnik.com/words/conceit has a bunch of meanings collected from various sources.
I wonder if you meant `concession`.
Also, it's a false dichotomy. One can use VPN or proxies, to limit exposure or to encapsulate it. Of course, you can't get perfect location privacy.
Your IP address is LEAKING!
Together with the tons of data leaked by browsers it makes it very easy to track people across places and devices.