Advertisers are able to target you in this way because your public IP address reveals your location. Think about it: the ads you see are often location-specific, right? You see ads for the local pizza shop and dance studio, not those across the country. Not only that, but pretty much everything you do online reveals your public IP: your browsing history, your online purchases, and even your emails are tagged with your IP. In contrast, your public IP address is not secure - it’s visible anytime you visit a web page. You generally only need to know what it is if you’re doing something on your home network, like setting up a local gaming server or troubleshooting printing problems. local IP addresses: which is more secure?Īs mentioned, your local IP address is not visible to the outside world. Your local IP is more private, because it cannot be seen outside of your network. Your local IP is defined by your router, which assigns a unique local IP address to each device on your home network, such as your computers, phones, tablets, smart devices, etc. When you type in a website you’d like to visit, your IP address is sent along with that request.

It’s how they determine who (out of all their customers) is requesting a specific website and send it along accordingly. Your public IP is assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to your home network. If you already know the difference, skip directly to our sections on how to find your public IP and how to find your local IP now. Just like the postal service uses your home address to deliver packages, website servers use your unique IP address (often referred to simply as an “IP”) to send the data you request (in the form of a website) to your device.īefore we get into how to find your IP address, it’s important to determine if you’re looking for a public (also called external) or a local (also called internal) IP address. IP addresses are also used to identify people.

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