How to display IP location across the entire network?

In order to further regulate domestic online public opinion, the state stipulates that all Internet platforms need to display IP location information. Weibo, Douyin, WeChat public accounts and other platforms have launched the IP location function, which marks the further standardization of domestic speech. But how do Internet platform operators locate our region through IP? What is the principle behind this? What are the practical applications behind IP location? Today we will talk about the technical principles behind IP location.

How to find the address by IP?

We all know that we can find a person through an IP address. But when we think about it, we will find that the IP address is not directly related to the geographical location. So how do we find the address through the IP address? The answer is: through the Autonomous System.

The Internet is a network of different networks. Autonomous systems are large networks that make up the Internet. Every computer or device connected to the Internet is connected to an AS. And each autonomous system has a code, which we call ASN.

An AS can be thought of as being similar to a town's post office. Mail goes from post office to post office until it reaches the right town, where the post office delivers the mail within that town. Each AS controls a specific set of IP addresses, just as each town's post office is responsible for delivering mail to all addresses within that town. Typically, each AS is operated by a single large organization, such as an Internet Service Provider (ISP), a large enterprise technology company, a university, or a government agency.

At this point, we can clearly understand the following logical relationship: IP address -> address block -> Autonomous Network Number (ASN) -> Organization -> Country. Through the IP address, we can locate a general geographical location, such as Chaoyang District, Beijing, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, etc. For example, my current IP address belongs to the autonomous network coded AS4xxx. Through this ASN, we can know that the location is Shenzhen, China, and the organization to which this ASN code belongs is China Telecom.

However, ASN can only find the geographical location at the county or district level, and no more detailed location can be found. But why do some students sometimes say that their water meters were checked and they were directly located at a certain unit or household? In fact, the principle is very simple! As mentioned above, the organization to which the ASN belongs can be located based on the IP address, and the organization to which the ASN belongs will record the IP address allocation when allocating IP addresses.

The IP address is clearly recorded to whom it is assigned. Therefore, if the police want to have a chat with you, they can definitely catch you. But it should be noted that not everyone has the authority to query this data from the operator. Therefore, those who say they can find you by crawling through the network cable can basically be ignored, as they are just trying to scare you. Only after the police have filed a case and presented relevant documents can data query be carried out.

Privacy issues with IP addresses

Is it true that only operators can find a person's address information? In today's big data era, various Internet applications have collected a large amount of data information, and they can actually infer a person's approximate address location based on this information. For example, Baidu Maps will always use App SDK and web pages to record the association between IP and address location, and allow reverse query, that is, it can reverse query a certain location based on the IP address, and the data accuracy may be accurate to several hundred meters.

In fact, not only domestic companies do this, but foreign companies also do this, such as Google. However, foreign countries have very strict control over this aspect, so they will clearly disclose the user privacy data used, and also provide corresponding functions for users to turn it off.

Some friends said, if I can use VPN to change my IP, then some apps will not know my exact location? Actually not, because your neighbors can betray you. Some apps find that the WIFI, Bluetooth, etc. around your neighbors are very similar to yours. And when a WiFi signal disappears, the neighbor's also disappears synchronously. Then they can guess that you have hidden your real IP and your geographical location is very close to your neighbor's. This is the application in the context of the big data era.

Therefore, when some devices pop up a prompt "Do you want to allow scanning of local devices", you should choose carefully. If it is not an intranet NAS or screen projection, there is basically no need to allow this operation. This operation is stealing your personal privacy information. If you allow this operation, it will start to scan the device information of the entire LAN and then record it. In the end, it will summarize your IP address, mobile phone IMEI, WiFi and other information to make some commercial information, for example - you searched for the keyword "house" on your computer, and later when you browse your mobile phone Douyin, it will push real estate advertisements to you.

Connecting local network devices

To put it bluntly, the use of "finding and connecting to devices on the local network" provides convenience for cross-platform advertising, but from the perspective of personal information protection and privacy protection experience, this kind of monitoring and tracking of devices may cause concerns to users.