Someone should point out that saying that they can "find out where you live" is not quite as easy as that. Yes, you can trace my IP back, but if you did, you'd think that I lived in Maryland, which is halfway across the country from Wyoming, where I live.
When you "trace" someone's IP address, all you're really doing is following it back to their ISP. Which, in my case, is located thousands of miles from where I actually access the internet from. In order to actually find where I am, you'd need to contact the ISP with a court order that forces them to reveal my name and location.
I'm told there are ways to get around that, but I don't know any, and am fairly sure that they must be illegal.
Also, does anybody know if the IP locator here at AO is working properly? Because I just tried it out, and it told me I was in Australia.
