What is “IP masking” and can it help ensure my privacy?
IP masking has two meanings. One is on the consumer, or commercial side, and one is on the user side. On the commercial side, it’s quite simple. Maybe one part of a website is fulfilled by another company, and the main company doesn’t want users to know that, so this is hidden in such a way that you always see the main web address, and you never see the other IP address. On a personal basis, your IP address is often tracked by sites that you visit. In most cases, if you have a cable modem, or DSL, you do not have what is called a “permanent IP,” meaning an IP address that belongs to you. You have what’s called DHCP, which is a dynamically-generated IP address, meaning that each time you get online, or oftentimes that you are online, you have a different IP address. Either way, they can be traced. So, “IP masking” is a way to cover your IP address so that the site doesn’t read it as a true IP address but reads it as essentially an anonymous IP address or meaningless set of numbers. This
