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Really scary. I wanted to see if i could find someone. Went onto twitch.tv. Picked a random stream. Got email. Looked up Skype id from email. Searched for skyp

Really scary. I wanted to see if i could find someone. Went onto twitch.tv. Picked a random stream. Got email. Looked up Skype id from email. Searched for skype id which gave me the IP and the small town where they currently reside. Its worrying how easy this makes it to find someone.

TomGullen 14y ago
Honest question, why is it scary? My IP resolves to a location ~20 miles away. I don't see why having a Skype contact and knowing a 20 mile radius where they live is anything to worry about?
- jeff18 14y ago
  Most residential internet connections don't have any sort of DDOS protection, so privacy issues aside, at the very least you are open to a simple denial-of-service attack. This was a huge problem for the popular progamer "Destiny" in the Starcraft 2 community.
  - TomGullen 14y ago
    So is it also really scary that the mods/admins on the Starcraft 2 forum could also see his IP address? The risk of being DDOSed when you share a contact on Skype and they find out your IP address is hyperbole.
    - jeff18 14y ago
      There is a pretty substantial difference between a few Blizzard employees knowing your IP address and the entire public knowing your IP address.
- junglhilt 14y ago
  You obviously don't live in China...
jQueryIsAwesome 14y ago
But is no different than just send them a link where you save their IP when they open it (and with little social engineering you can trick anyone into clicking a link)
- nowarninglabel 14y ago
  Actually, it's very different because one can passively acquire contact info this way, as opposed to actively contacting each one. Not only is it faster than social-engineering each contact, it's more palatable to those who don't want to attempt such.
  - TomGullen 14y ago
    Yes, but why does it actually matter if someone has your IP address?
    - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
      It can be directly linked to your address in most cases.
      - TomGullen 14y ago
        In most cases? And with what accuracy?
      - mibbitier 14y ago
        Sometimes you can get to the correct city in the US. Rarely can you get any further than that from an IP. In other countries you can only really be sure about the country.

TomGullen 14y ago

Honest question, why is it scary? My IP resolves to a location ~20 miles away. I don't see why having a Skype contact and knowing a 20 mile radius where they live is anything to worry about?

jeff18 14y ago
Most residential internet connections don't have any sort of DDOS protection, so privacy issues aside, at the very least you are open to a simple denial-of-service attack. This was a huge problem for the popular progamer "Destiny" in the Starcraft 2 community.
- TomGullen 14y ago
  So is it also really scary that the mods/admins on the Starcraft 2 forum could also see his IP address? The risk of being DDOSed when you share a contact on Skype and they find out your IP address is hyperbole.
  - jeff18 14y ago
    There is a pretty substantial difference between a few Blizzard employees knowing your IP address and the entire public knowing your IP address.
junglhilt 14y ago
You obviously don't live in China...

jQueryIsAwesome 14y ago

But is no different than just send them a link where you save their IP when they open it (and with little social engineering you can trick anyone into clicking a link)

nowarninglabel 14y ago
Actually, it's very different because one can passively acquire contact info this way, as opposed to actively contacting each one. Not only is it faster than social-engineering each contact, it's more palatable to those who don't want to attempt such.
- TomGullen 14y ago
  Yes, but why does it actually matter if someone has your IP address?
  - TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
    It can be directly linked to your address in most cases.
    - TomGullen 14y ago
      In most cases? And with what accuracy?
    - mibbitier 14y ago
      Sometimes you can get to the correct city in the US. Rarely can you get any further than that from an IP. In other countries you can only really be sure about the country.