I was wondering.......  what can "they" do to trace people and/or their locations based on their web surfing habits?  How easy or difficult is it to locate one by their IP address, and how easy or difficult is it to obtain an IP address of someone who is or was on a particular web site?  

What can be done to locate people who hang out on terrorist web sites, send emails to terrorists, etc?  Can they intercept an email and locate where the sender was physically?  What about the recipient?  This could be used in domestic security, as well as in Israel, Iraq, etc.  Can they find a web site - Hizbollah.com or whatever - and find out where the people are who visit or post on the site?  

And of course, what about if someone posts something "suspicious" on our beloved website here?

Anyone knowledgeable about this?????

my site logs everyone's ip address that visits my site. It also records how much time you spend on each page, and other info like where the user came from.

I am pretty sure ips can be spoofed so you can't guarantee that the ip is accurate or traceable. To you and me, it would be very traceable, but for someone who really knows what they are doing, probrobly not.

OK, Thanks!  

How do they trace an IP?

I believe that the ip address is like your street address. Just like the mail gets to your house, the ip lets information get to your computer. So if one has an ip address I would think one could contact the ISP who issued that ip and get the user information that way. I don't think just anyone can do it though. I think you need to be law enforcement or equivalent.

I am not sure if that is totally right though -  and maybe someone like subnet will come on and explain it better.

Quoted: what can "they" do to trace people and/or their locations based on their web surfing habits?   If the "they" you refer to are the alphabet agencies, they can do what the patriot act afford them. The technical part is a non issue....anything can be tracked and accounted for. Everything on the internet is recorded...not in some malicious way, just in the basic caching of info when you log onto wen sites. Creating a profile based on the websites you visit happens every time you are on a major site. Many of those "banner" adverstisments are custom tailored to the cookies on your PC...the marketing industry has been building profiles on consumers since long before the internet, the net just made it easier! How easy or difficult is it to locate one by their IP address, and how easy or difficult is it to obtain an IP address of someone who is or was on a particular web site?   Simple, and many people here can tell you what your IP address without spending more than a minute or two of working on it. Finding out who you are based on it depends on if you are a user at home with ISP access, or actually have an IP address registered to you. Most likely, you have an ISP (meaning you arent your own internet provider, hosting service, or webmaster of a production commercial website). The ip address you use belongs to them....and they rarely if ever give that info out, unless certain LE agencies get a court order to have it realeased. Can it be done...sure...happens all the time. That is how people get caught in sting opperations, and how hackers are tracked.

The reasons you give for tracking things are already in motion, and have been since before the internet was even made public. People like to think they can be anonomous online...nothing could be further from the truth.

Quoted: I was wondering.......  what can "they" do to trace people and/or their locations based on their web surfing habits?  How easy or difficult is it to locate one by their IP address, and how easy or difficult is it to obtain an IP address of someone who is or was on a particular web site?   What can be done to locate people who hang out on terrorist web sites, send emails to terrorists, etc?  Can they intercept an email and locate where the sender was physically?  What about the recipient?  This could be used in domestic security, as well as in Israel, Iraq, etc.  Can they find a web site - Hizbollah.com or whatever - and find out where the people are who visit or post on the site?   And of course, what about if someone posts something "suspicious" on our beloved website here? Anyone knowledgeable about this?????

Why do you ask???

Is it really for the reasons you mentioned?  or is there another reason you really want to know???

I know next to NOTHING about this. HOWEVER what I DO know is good info. I have Earthlink, dial-up access. EACH time I log on, I have a DIFFERENT IP address (it rotates several between the subscribers in the area, I THINK - that's the way it was explained to me, anyway.)

Right NOW 4.224.189.243.

Now I'll log off and back on again...

NOW it's 4.225.94.242

So, THAT would be ANOTHER way that gets "tripped up" FWIW.

Thanks for the replies! Anyone else have anything to say on this?

Quoted: I know next to NOTHING about this. HOWEVER what I DO know is good info. I have Earthlink, dial-up access. EACH time I log on, I have a DIFFERENT IP address (it rotates several between the subscribers in the area, I THINK - that's the way it was explained to me, anyway.) Right NOW 4.224.189.243. Now I'll log off and back on again... NOW it's 4.225.94.242 So, THAT would be ANOTHER way that gets "tripped up" FWIW.

Yeah, but Earthlink saved your phone number and matched it to the asigned IP, so a simple call from someone with the proper credentiasl would reveal who are you

Surfing the "teen" sites again.   ----- joking

It really depends on your ISP.

Pretty much everything you do is logged, both at your origination point (your ISP) and your destination point.

Your destination will know your IP address.

Your ISP can use that IP address to identify YOU.

The technology isn't really there to identify your present location by IP address, but they can generally resolve your location within a few miles.  Something like a VPN though can screw with this.

Most encryption technology is crackable by the US government.  It's a question of time and resources.  If they want to read your mail, they will.  And even if they aren't reading it, they are almost certainly storing it, in case it's needed later.  For whatever reason.  

Oh my god they know my IP!!!

Quoted: Quoted: I know next to NOTHING about this. HOWEVER what I DO know is good info. I have Earthlink, dial-up access. EACH time I log on, I have a DIFFERENT IP address (it rotates several between the subscribers in the area, I THINK - that's the way it was explained to me, anyway.) Right NOW 4.224.189.243. Now I'll log off and back on again... NOW it's 4.225.94.242 So, THAT would be ANOTHER way that gets "tripped up" FWIW. Yeah, but Earthlink saved your phone number and matched it to the asigned IP, so a simple call from someone with the proper credentiasl would reveal who are you

Yup!

You need the proper strategery of proxifinicationess.