How Does Google Know If Your IP Is Masked?
The question of whether Google knows if your Internet protocol address is masked or not depends entirely on the proxy you use. Many proxy services use a special masking host to which they redirect the IP, so that Google knows that your IP is masked. The demand for a truly anonymous proxy remains high, as a number of free and proprietary systems have entered the market, but many have left.
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When Google Knows
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Google knows that your IP is masked when the anonymizing proxy sends it to its own domain and host. In the past, many anonymizing services were of this type. Without an anonymizing proxy, your IP would show up as something like the following. (The country code for the United States is not 123; this is a hypothetical example).
IP: 123.45. 678. 910
Location: United States
Region: Your State
City: Your City
ISP: Your ISP
Operating System/Version: Your OS and version number
Browser: All browsers you are usingIf you use a masked proxy, it will create a new IP address for you that appears something like this:
IP: 456.12. 345.789
Location: Anonymizing Host
ISP: Anonymizing Host
Browser: Anonymizing Host
Operating System/Version: Anonymizing HostGoogle knows that this IP address is masked.
Not All Proxies Are Equal
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Proxy services that convert your IP address, location and host name to another IP address and location do mask your actual IP address, but they do not prevent Google from tracking you. Often, these services route your IP address to a server in a different country, which enables you to access some but not all of your favorite sites. And by changing your IP address and routing it to a new server in a different country, these proxies are anonymous only until Google tracks that new IP address.
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When Google Does Not Know
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The demand for a truly anonymous proxy that Google can't identify as being masked remains high. In 2010 a free Mozilla Firefox add-on, GoogleSharing, was developed by Moxie Marlinspoke for Mozilla users who wish to surf anonymously. It does not work for other browsers.
No-Mask Anonymous Surfing
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GoogleSharing was designed to guarantee Mozilla users a level of anonymous surfing not available with other proxies. By encrypting a user's IP address and sharing it randomly with other users' IP addresses, GoogleSharing not only keeps Google from realizing that your IP address is masked, but also keeps it from tracking your IP address. GoogleSharing feeds to Google the IP address of the previous user. The next user will then get your IP address, and the user after that will get the IP address of the previous user. It is this sharing of IP addresses and encrypting them that makes it impossible for Google to know that the proxy IP is masked.
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