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To: bushwon
I believe there are dynamic ip addresses that do not link to an indivdual.

No IP, dynamic or static, can identify a person. They only identify a computer. But those records are kept, so a dynamic IP doesn't protect the identity of a computer. The ISP knows which box asked for a dynamic IP by its MAC address, and the MAC address is globally unique unless tampered with. Very few people know how to do that.

But it is technically possible to implement a system like one in airports, for example. Anyone can turn the laptop on and connect to a wireless hot spot. But the only page you get is the sign-on page. There you have to type your name and password, and then you will be allowed onto the network. This can be implemented by consumer level ISPs.

But business level ISPs can't do that. This is because too much communication in business occurs not between people but between computers. Those boxes need Internet access, but they aren't associated with any particular human, and they are not controlled by that human when they do their Windows updates or remote backup / rsync or web serving or SMTP mail or whatever.

One more possibility is to mandate that all US web sites only serve content to US visitors who are authenticated. But that will backfire because we'll be reading Asian news instead, and they are far less favorable to Obama than the local media. Google will go out of business, and Baidu will become #1 (we don't care what Chinese gov't collects about us, and neither does the Chinese gov't.)

117 posted on 01/07/2011 11:48:03 PM PST by Greysard
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To: Greysard

we don’t care what Chinese gov’t collects about us, and neither does the Chinese gov’t.

Maybe we should, and how do you know? I can think of many senerios where the Chinese would very much care about certain individuls web activities, none of them good.


175 posted on 01/08/2011 5:20:31 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine .. now it is your turn..)
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To: Greysard

> The ISP knows which box asked for a dynamic IP by its
> MAC address, and the MAC address is globally unique
> unless tampered with. Very few people know how to do that.

You may be able to beat the beast using Virtual Machine technology. I haven’t looked into it closely, but perhaps using NAT to connect a VM to the network may hide you pretty well.


193 posted on 01/08/2011 6:18:02 AM PST by Westbrook (Having children does not divide your love, it multiplies it.)
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