And lo On Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:19:11 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake thusly:

>>> (Mercifully, it's virtually impossible to determine who an IP address  
>>> belongs to...)
>>  Why would that be?
>
> ...because every minute of every hour, hundreds of thousands of people  
> connect to a given ISP and get assigned new IP addresses purely at  
> random?

Except they know the telephone number you're connecting from, unless you  
hide it and then some won't let you connect.

>> Your ISP knows who's connecting to them and what IP address has been  
>> assigned to them. If the company keeps its own logs then it's simply a  
>> matter of matching up times.
>
> Excep that I'm almost certain that it's illegal for ISPs to give out  
> that kind of information. (I'm also almost certain they don't even  
> record it in the first place, because it would be too hard.)

Check various communications laws, there's normally a bunch of provisos  
about providing information. How do you think the police get hold of  
telephone records?

>> Come the official police state and we'll all have fixed IP addresses  
>> tied to our ID cards and it'll be a criminal offence to use a different  
>> one.
>
> Yeah, ain't that the truth...
>
>> On an even easier note if you've signed up to Google (or don't clear  
>> your cookies) and did the search there then they at least know exactly  
>> who you are and what you like to search for; all it'll take is a court  
>> order and voila.
>
> Again, how do they get their hands on cookies for a different domain?

Check your stats pages you might see a referrer address so they know where  
you came from, they then track you through their site. Now look closely at  
the results google presents say for "test"

The first result is "Test.com Web Based Testing Software" hover over it  
and it'll take you to www.test.com right? Wrong! Pull up the properties of  
the link and you'll see it's going to  
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.test.com%2F&ei=Bag2Sb7LB6HcwwH00_ygCA&usg=AFQjCNH21KLjC0CBkjon2DwD_CZ0HApLMw&sig2=vLPKI-AayJcm2Yjw8x974w

They know where you came from, what you were doing on their site, and  
where you left for.

> (Also, what do you mean "sign up to Google"?)

For personalised info on iGoogle, you got Gmail?

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

Post a reply to this message