"The European purchasing agent I'm looking for is not from Holland, but from Henan." "The Australian life blogger I am concerned about is actually in Liaoning." Since the middle of April, Weibo, wechat, Tiktok, today's headlines, xiaohongshu, Zhihu... All major platforms have launched the IP territory display function in succession. In addition to publishing articles, videos and other content, users will display the IP territory, and also display the location information when commenting and participating in voting. Moreover, users cannot turn off this function.
In other words, every word and deed you do on the network platform will bring a "small tail" showing your geographical location. However, this seemingly small change has triggered a large "Butterfly Effect" on the Internet.
Although the melon eaters will watch with great interest that many online celebrities and big V's who are exposed to the public of real IP possessions have set up rollovers, and the fake agents of Shuijun spray have nowhere to hide, they will also have questions: will the public display of IP territory information expose personal privacy? Is the displayed IP possession information trusted? Will it be easily modified?
The IP territory was "bombed" by no one, and the netizens, KOL and purchasing agents panicked
After the display of IP territory, the "human settings" purchased by many star online celebrities, KOL big V and anchor were broken.
A top stream star once replied to fans' messages and moved fans to "break the defense", but now when this microblog shows that the IP territory is released in Beijing, the star is actually on a foreign set, so it can be seen that it is not me who "spoiled the fans".
Some netizens found that a large number of social accounts that "come to sauce in Tokyo", "Nana in the UK", "American rabbit mother"... Share bits of foreign life are changing their names one after another, because their IP territories are actually in Guangdong, Tianjin and Shandong
The IP address of the account "things about Beijingers", which focuses on local information, is located in Hunan, "eating, drinking and having fun in Shenzhen", "Chengdu food collection", "eating and drinking collection in Guangzhou"... All in Hunan.
There are also purchasing agents who are afraid of "showing the original form". In order to win the trust of customers, purchasing agents will often send some daily life abroad, but it is likely to be a "human device".
"Because my microblog and little red book show that the IP territory is in Liaoning, many old customers are asking for returns." Ning Ning, who has always been a purchasing agent in Japan, wrongfully told the reporter of China Economic Weekly that she had started purchasing agent during her study in Japan and accumulated many customers. After returning home from the epidemic, she could only cooperate with her Japanese classmates, who were responsible for purchasing in Japan, and she was responsible for pulling customers and delivering goods through the operation platform account in China.
But this explanation can not convince all customers. Ningning's orders have obviously decreased. "I know that many purchasing agents are fake, and some steal our pictures and videos to deceive people." Ning Ning is also very helpless.
In fact, various network platforms have launched this function one after another, which is in response to the relevant requirements in the regulations on the management of Internet user account name information (Draft for comments) issued by the state Internet information office last year. It clearly stipulates that the Internet user account service platform shall display the account IP address and territorial information on the Internet user account information page in a significant way. The IP address territorial information of domestic Internet user account shall be marked to the province (District, city), and the IP address territorial information of overseas account shall be marked to the country (region).
"From the perspective of network security, the disclosure of IP possessions can effectively prevent fraud, facilitate users to identify false information, help netizens improve their ability to identify network information to a certain extent, and improve the authenticity and transparency of network content." Ge Jian, a 360 safety expert, told China Economic Weekly.
Can you change the IP possession for 6 yuan? Safety experts warn of risks
What is "IP dependency"? All Internet devices will be assigned an IP address, and each IP address has a home, which is your IP possession. In short, it is the specific geographical location where your online behavior occurs.
So, is it a violation of personal privacy that the user's IP possession is publicly displayed?
Ge Jian said that the IP territory only shows the provincial level and does not touch the scope of personal information. Moreover, in the regulations on the management of Internet user account name information (Exposure Draft), it is also clear that the platform displays the IP territory of Internet user account, which does not correspond to individuals, so it does not belong to personal information.
Although the disclosure of IP possessions on Internet platforms will not reveal your privacy, if you modify IP possessions for various purposes, you are likely to give up your privacy and even become the "prey" of black and gray products.
The reporter found that with the launch of the IP ownership function, the business of paying "IP agent" is also booming. There are businesses selling IP ownership modification services on multiple e-commerce network platforms, which can be purchased in a single day, on a monthly or annual basis, and the cost is about hundreds to thousands of yuan.
Although a large amount of such information was found to have been cleaned up and removed from the shelves of various platforms in the follow-up, Ning Ning told reporters that many people in their purchasing circle can find "hanging ladder" (referring to "IP agent"). "Mature services are not difficult or expensive." She said.
Ge Jian also said that the need to modify IP has always existed on the Internet. For example, the often heard "IP proxy" service can realize the function of replacing IP territory.
According to ge Jian, users use "IP proxy" for many purposes. For example, many practitioners of black ash industry will disguise their identity by modifying the IP territory to avoid exposing their identity in tracing; "Wool party" repeatedly "collects" promotional offers and red envelopes by constantly changing IP; Some users also want to speed up the network through IP proxy. For example, for some games on overseas servers, domestic IP cannot log in normally or the network speed will be very slow; More commonly, VPN is used to "climb over the wall" to access overseas websites
In other words, "IP proxy" is actually a very common and mature network technology, and even has formed a commercial product. However, technology itself is not good or bad. The key depends on the purpose and purpose of users.
Some people sell IP territorial modification services
According to ge Jian, early IP agents mainly switched IP through fixed network IP, and derived various types of "VPN" that specialized in selling IP agent resources. However, due to the limitation of IP resources, some people have begun to use the "second dial" method to maliciously obtain the IP resources of operators.
"By using 'second dialing IP', black ash producers can quickly change IP or specify IP ownership, bypass the restrictions of time, region and times, and directly bypass the platform IP risk control. This second dialing IP with low cost and high concealment is gradually becoming a new trend of IP agents." Ge Jian said.
In addition, the reporter also learned from several e-commerce and social platforms that the platform is also increasing the prevention of modifying IP territory through "IP agent" recently.
But network security is always "one foot higher than the devil". For example, for platform supervision, second dialing IP will lead to misjudgment. "Because the second dial IP is randomly selected, when the IP is abandoned by the second dial gang and transferred to normal users in a short time, if the platform blocks the IP due to the former's' wool pulling 'behavior, it will affect the account use of normal users." Ge Jian said.
However, many security experts have suggested that users should not try to change the IP territory, let alone trust the ease and simplicity in the mouth of "IP agent", because you are likely to become the "prey" of black and gray products.
Ge Jian said that although there are no relevant punishment provisions for ordinary Internet users to use IP agents to surf the Internet normally in the current law, the use of IP agents has certain risks, because it is easy to disclose user information such as browsing records, account passwords, etc. in the process. Once it is stolen by hackers and used by gray and black products, it may cause serious consequences.
However, illegal IP agents have been severely cracked down on throughout the country. According to the data from the Ministry of public security, in the "net 2021" operation, the Ministry of public security specially dealt with the key basic resources breeding illegal and harmful information on the Internet, such as network TV and "dynamic IP agent", investigated and dealt with 146 illegal network TV stations, shut down more than 13000 illegal broadband lines and more than 5000 broadband Internet accounts in accordance with the law together with relevant departments.