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{{Title|title=
IP Hiding is an Outdated Threat Model
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{{#seo:
|description=The concept of merely hiding IP addresses is outdated, belonging to the threat model of the 1990s. Modern privacy threats extend beyond IP address exposure.
|image=IP_Hiding_outdated123.jpg
}}
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[[File:IP_Hiding_outdated123.jpg|thumb]]
{{intro|
The concept of merely hiding IP addresses is considered outdated, belonging to the threat model of the 1990s. Modern privacy threats extend beyond IP address exposure.
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= Beyond IP Hiding =
{{quotation
|quote=Hiding your identity is harder than just hiding your IP.
}}

Hiding IP addresses is an important necessity but concealing one's identity requires more than just obscuring IP addresses. Simple IP address anonymization is insufficient because contemporary adversaries employ a variety of [[Data Collection Techniques]] such as browser fingerprinting that circumvent the need for IP addresses. This is evidenced by various [[Browser Tests]], such as the [https://fingerprint.com/demo/ Fingerprint.com Demo], which illustrates that, as mentioned in [[The_World_Wide_Web_And_Your_Privacy#Fingerprint.com|"12% of the top 500 websites use Fingerprint.com's services"]].

This is a fact that also some VPN providers such as Mullvad are acknowledging.

{{quotation
|quote=When you visit a website, you can be identified and tracked through your IP address, third-party cookies, all kinds of tracking scripts, and through so called browser fingerprints. That’s why masking your IP address is not enough to stop the data collection. 
|context=[https://web.archive.org/web/20240210111540/https://mullvad.net/en/browser Mullvad Browser]
}}

To ensure user anonymity, {{project_name_short}} provides [[Reliable IP Hiding]] as well as [[About#Full_Spectrum_Anti-Tracking_Protection|Full Spectrum Anti-Tracking Protection]] and is [https://www.whonix.org/#vpn significantly safer than VPNs], as detailed in the thorough [[Whonix_versus_VPNs|Whonix versus VPNs]] comparison.

= Footnotes =
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[[Category:Documentation]]