How to Play Online Safely: Protect Your Identity
9/9/20241 min read
I value your time so, you can skip to the bolded text below for the answer.
When I was a young lad, I was playing Fortnite on Xbox with a friend of a friend. We’ll call this person Thunder. We were having a great time, but then Thunder and I started talking smack. To one-up me, he started listing off things about me and my family. I didn’t really know this guy well, and the sensitive information he was sharing greatly disturbed me.
I later brought this to the attention of my friend, who explained that Thunder and his friends had found a way to access the IP addresses of people they played with, and they were just being mad lads.
Just a note: Thunder is actually a pretty cool guy, and I’ve played with him many times since this event. We’ve even FaceTimed a few times.
This experience is what got me interested in computers because I didn’t want to use them—or the internet—blindly.
IP addresses identify a device on a network, and they help determine where a device is physically located. You can probably see why it’s important to keep this information secure.
Now, Let's Get to the Point
Here are two ways you can protect your IP address:
Be careful about joining online parties with people you don’t personally know or who haven’t been referred by a trusted friend. There are ways hackers can access your information in these online settings.
Set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
VPNs can do a lot:
Help protect your data
Bypass geographic restrictions
Provide a more secure connection over public Wi-Fi
Mask your IP address
The key here is that a VPN can hide your IP address. Since your IP address is linked to your physical location, a VPN can help mask that information.
We’ll talk more about VPNs another time!
Until then, thanks for tuning in!
Stay classy.