Just about everyone who is familiar with computers and the internet has at least heard of an IP address, and perhaps you worry that anyone can find out personal information, like your physical address, using your IP address, which is posted on every email or other direct online communication you make. While this is a very natural concern, and there is some truth to this idea, this is not a major security issue.

Your IP address is a sequence of numbers specific to your personal computer that helps to identify and track your online history. A large part of this technology is used to help you create online histories and bookmarks, but it is also the primary piece of information used to identify you on the internet. Everyone who gets an email sent from your computer has your IP address, but the question is how they use this information.

IP addresses are buried within emails, so unless the person suspects the legitimacy of your letter, they will have no reason to even look at this data. Of course, if you are sending out a large amount of spam and someone happens to check their email's trace route, they will probably find your email address as well. Your IP address can't really tell someone anything in itself, but email addresses and, specifically, reverse email searches, can often reveal more about a person.

Using a reverse email search, someone can sometimes get another user's address, but this depends largely on the type of email server and the person themselves. Internet service servers are more likely to have this information, because your service address is part of how the company identifies you.

However, even internet-based email providers might list this data in their directory if you provided it when registering for the account. While a reverse email search can provide a lot of data, the account holder determines how much information is available.



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