In the referenced court case, the issue at hand was that Microsoft was collecting IP addresses from its software users. Some of those users sued, claiming their personal information was being taken, which was against Microsoft’s own user agreement. Now that the court ruled IP addresses are not personal information, it means collecting IP addresses is completely acceptable even if a user agreement says no personal information will be collected. If that sounds scary, it shouldn’t.

Many people seem to be up in arms about the ruling, mostly due to unfounded fears they have that they will now be tracked by anybody and everybody online. This is fear is so off-the-wall/conspiracy theory-like that it’s hard to argue with people with this belief. Ok, so it may be hard to argue, but I’ll try anyway…

First, the judge is technically incorrect in saying an IP address identifies a computer not a person. Why? Because the IP address actually only identifies a network – and even then, it only identifies it at a certain snapshot in time as it can change. For example, my IP address actually just takes you to a router sitting in my home, a router that “feeds” internet to multiple computers. What that means is that if a piece of software or a website somewhere stores my IP address, it could be from me, or any number of other people that connect to my home network. This is why I laugh when I hear people claim that an IP address is like your computer’s social security number. I’m pretty sure a person’s social security number isn’t shared by others and I know that it can’t change unless there’s some extreme extenuating circumstances.

Second, if you decide to go onto the Web, you should basically treat the experience as going out in public. As such, you are pretty much fair game for being watched and tracked by those around you. Just like when you decide to go into a grocery store you’ll be monitored by security cameras, you should accept the fact that when you visit a website, that website may be tracking your movements online. Most websites, at a minimum, track their users with stats that include everything from operating system and Web browser to region and referring website. Of course, those stats never include your name, your street address, or any other personally identifiable information (well, unless you log into some sort of account on that website that includes that information of course).

Third, tracking IP addresses is pretty much required for many websites and online enabled software. Why? Because it allows people to validate and verify users of their software and lets them use tracked IP addresses to improve their product or service. This grants the software and website providers quite a few benefits. For one, they can protect themselves from various digital attacks by blocking IP addresses from malicious users. They can also use the IP address information along with other stats to provide you with a better experience (such as serving up more relevant ads, rerouting traffic, and remembering your preferences).

Hopefully it’s pretty clear that there really isn’t much to be afraid of when it comes to tracking IP addresses. This ruling isn’t turning into some online form of 1984’s Big Brother. Besides, there are clear benefits to this ruling, such as there being a much better defense against RIAA and similar organizations since they generally relied on the notion that IP addresses are the same as people. Of course, if you are in fact stealing music, I hope RIAA finds another way of hunting you down… but that’s an article for another time.