Private IP Addresses and How Everything is About to Change
Dallas, TX (PRWEB) July 18, 2013 -- idcloak expresses concern about the future of user privacy under IPv6 in its new article: Private IP Addresses and How Everything is About to Change.
Robin Welles, its author, points out how the new IPv6 internet addressing system will soon make users even more identifiable online than they are now, “The internet is in the process of switching over to a new internet addressing system: IPv6. Once it fully rolls out, private IP addresses will fall out of use and public IP addresses will become highly personalized. We want the wider public to understand what is happening so they can make sure they are protected.”
Using a postal system analogy, the article explains that IPv4 private addresses offer important protection of user identity, especially to those in business environments: IPv4 users are hidden in the crowd behind a shared public IP address (on a router, for example), which in many cases is also ‘dynamic’ and therefore constantly changing.
Under the new IPv6 system, however, business internet networks will mostly do away with private IP addressing, and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are expected to switch to static IP addressing. “Under IPv6, your digital footprint will be so revealing that it will almost be like signing and dating every page you visit.”
Because an IPv6 address contains the MAC address of a device’s network card, a user’s IP address will remain unchanged for several years unless special precautions are taken. “The privacy implications of this, especially following the recent controversies regarding NSA surveillance, are extremely worrying.”
Welles recommends that the public lobbies their governments to ensure ISPs guarantee at least some user privacy by keeping dynamic addressing under the forthcoming IPv6 environment.
But for dependable privacy, Welles says users need to take matters into their own hands, “Everyone should use IPv6 privacy extensions to obfuscate their IP address – the range of variation is limited, but it’s better than nothing. Anonymous proxies will take on a whole new level of importance too.”
idcloak Technologies Inc. is a dedicated developer of identity protection services, including the recently released free proxy web server, and the forthcoming idcloak web VPN.
Written by Gill-Chris Welles
Gill-Chris Welles, idcloak Technologies Inc., http://www.idcloak.com, 786-210-9230, [email protected]
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