How to hide your IP address safely online

If you're trying to figure out how to hide your IP address, chances are you care about privacy, you're hitting annoying geo blocks, or your scraping script just got rate-limited again. Good news: this isn't some dark hacker ritual. It's mostly about understanding what your IP actually does, what tools exist, and what trade-offs come with each one.

In this guide, we'll walk through the practical stuff. What an IP really reveals. How VPNs, proxies, Tor, mobile data, and even public Wi-Fi change your exposure. What works for casual browsing versus scraping workflows. And what absolutely does not work, no matter what Reddit says.

We'll keep it grounded. No hype, no "become invisible online in 3 clicks" nonsense. Hiding your IP adds a layer of privacy and control, but it does not turn you into a ghost. And just to be clear from the start: this guide is about legal and ethical use. Respect the law, respect site terms, and use these tools to protect yourself — not to break things.

Quick answer (TL;DR)

If you just want the short version of how to hide your IP address, here it is:

• For everyday privacy and public Wi-Fi use, get a reputable VPN. It's the easiest option and protects all traffic on your device.
  • In most setups it covers system-level traffic, but note that some apps, background services, or misconfigurations can bypass the tunnel depending on the device and operating system.
• For scraping, automation, or dev workflows, use proxies. They give you more control and make IP rotation possible. If you want a hands-off setup where rotation and retries are handled for you, a service like ScrapingBee can simplify the whole thing.
  • If you're still deciding, our proxy vs VPN comparison explains the differences in plain terms.
• For maximum privacy with a big speed trade-off, utilize Tor. Just expect slower connections and more blocked websites.

But keep in mind that none of these tools make you invisible. They simply replace your public IP with another one. Pick the method based on your goal, not on hype.

IP address basics and online privacy

Before we talk about how to hide IP address, let's make sure we're on the same page.

An IP (Internet Protocol) address is basically your device's return address on the internet. When you open a site, send a request, or load an app, your device reaches out to a server. The server needs to know where to send the data back. That "where" is your IP.

Your internet provider (ISP) assigns you an IP. Every website you visit receives it automatically as part of the request. From that IP, a site can usually estimate things like:

• Your approximate location (country, sometimes city).
• Your ISP.
• Whether the traffic looks residential, mobile, or data center based.
• How often that same IP is making requests.

That alone is enough to:

• Apply rate limits.
• Block certain countries.
• Flag suspicious activity.
• Build usage patterns over time.

Note that this detection isn't 100% precise. IP geolocation databases are based on third-party data and routing information. Sometimes they are accurate down to a city, and sometimes they are off by hundreds of kilometers. In certain cases, the location points to your ISP's hub, not your actual house. So think of IP-based analysis as probabilistic, not magical. It gives websites strong signals, not perfect truth.

Why hiding IP address?

So why would you hide your address? Depends on the goal:

• If you're a regular user, it's about privacy. You don't want every random service tying activity back to your home connection.
• If you care about security, it adds a buffer between your real network and the public internet.
• If you're a developer or scraper, it's about access. One IP making tons of requests will get throttled or blocked fast.

And by the way, wanting a reasonable level of privacy is completely normal. It's not shady, it's not paranoid, and it's not automatically illegal. You don't have to justify why you don't want every website mapping your home IP. Basic privacy is a legitimate goal.

But now let's be real for a second. Hiding your IP does not turn you into a ghost. It does not erase cookies, browser fingerprints, accounts, or sketchy behavior. It just swaps your exposed IP with another one. Think of it like changing the return label on a package, not teleporting out of existence.

We'll get into VPNs, proxies, Tor, and rotation soon. But first, you need to understand the two IP versions you'll run into and why they matter.

IPv4, IPv6, and what they mean for you

You've probably seen these terms before: IPv4 and IPv6.

• IPv4 is the older format. It looks like four numbers separated by dots: 192.168.0.1. It has been around for decades and most of the internet still runs on it.
• IPv6 is the newer format. It looks longer and more complex, with letters and colons, for example: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. It was created because we basically ran out of IPv4 addresses. There are way more possible IPv6 addresses than IPv4.

From a beginner point of view, here's what matters:

• Compatibility: IPv4 works almost everywhere. Some networks and tools still have partial or weird support for IPv6. If you are hiding your IP, especially with proxies, you need to know whether the service supports both. If you are curious about the deeper trade-offs, check out this guide on IPv4 vs IPv6 for privacy.
• Privacy: IPv6 can expose more stable identifiers if not configured carefully. In some setups, your IPv6 address changes less often than your IPv4. That can affect how easy it is to track you. For a home user wondering what to enable or disable, this article on should I use IPv6 at home breaks it down in simple terms.
• Speed: In most normal browsing situations, you will not notice a huge speed difference just because of IPv4 vs IPv6. The tool you use to hide your IP has a much bigger impact on performance.

For the rest of this tutorial, just remember this: you might be hiding an IPv4 address, an IPv6 address, or both. The solution you choose needs to handle that properly, especially if you care about privacy or you are building scraping workflows.

How websites and apps track your IP

Alright, now let's look at what actually happens behind the scenes.

I have to note that this is a simplified explanation. Real-world tracking setups can be way more complex. What you're reading here is the "good enough to understand what's going on" version, not a full network engineering deep dive.

Step one: you open a website.

Your device sends a request that includes your IP address. The website's server logs that IP automatically. This is normal. Every request usually leaves a trace in server logs.

Step two: the website stores it.

Most sites log your IP together with the time, the page you visited, and sometimes your user account if you were logged in. Over time, they can see patterns. Same IP visiting every day, same IP trying many logins, same IP scraping hundreds of pages per minute... Well, you get the idea.

Step three: they analyze it.

Websites can use your IP to:

• Estimate your location.
• Block certain countries.
• Limit how many requests you're allowed to make.
• Detect suspicious behavior.
• Personalize content or ads.

Step four: other parties get involved.

Your ISP can see the domains you connect to. Advertisers and analytics tools embedded on websites can also see your IP when your browser loads their scripts. So even if you never create an account, your IP still gets shared across multiple services.

For apps, it's similar. Mobile apps and desktop apps also send requests to their backend servers. Your IP is visible there too. Some apps use it to detect fraud, enforce regional rules, or prevent abuse.

Now here's the key part: even if you hide your IP address using a VPN or proxy, tracking does not stop completely. Websites can still use:

• Cookies, which are small text files saved in your browser that store identifiers and preferences between visits.
• Local storage and session storage, which let websites save larger pieces of data inside your browser to remember state, settings, or temporary session info.
• Browser fingerprinting, which combines technical details like screen size, installed fonts, device type, time zone, and other signals to build a unique profile of your device.
• Logged-in accounts, where your activity is tied directly to your user profile instead of just your IP address.

If you're on a work laptop, connected through a corporate VPN, or using a school or university network, assume logging is happening. Many organizations monitor traffic for security, compliance, or policy reasons. In those environments, hiding your IP from websites does not mean you're invisible to your employer or network administrator.

So when we talk about how to hide IP address, understand this: you are reducing one signal, not erasing your identity online.

And one more thing: any tool you use to hide your IP must be used within the law and within each website's terms of service. Hiding your IP is not illegal by itself. What you do with it can be.

Wait, so why not just disable cookies, block all storage, and nuke JavaScript completely?

Now that's a good question! Yes, if you disable cookies, local storage, and heavily restrict JavaScript, you reduce a lot of tracking surface. Fingerprinting becomes harder, persistent identifiers stop working, and some trackers simply break.

But (as you can probably guess) there's a trade-off. Cookies are also used for:

• Staying logged in.
• Saving language and theme preferences.
• Keeping your cart on e-commerce sites.
• Basic session management.

Local storage and JavaScript power huge parts of modern websites. If you block everything aggressively, a lot of sites will partially break. Some won't load at all: forms may fail, buttons may do nothing, and in worst cases you'll see blank pages.

If you're a power user and you're cool with tweaking settings per site, using script blockers, and debugging broken layouts, I'd say go on. You'll gain more control. But if you just want normal browsing with reasonable privacy, full lockdown mode will probably feel like fighting the internet every day.

So yeah, you can go nuclear. Just know what you're signing up for.

How to hide your IP address safely

Now let's get practical. If you're searching for how to hide IP address, you'll quickly see a bunch of tools. They all work in somewhat different ways but none of them give you 100% anonymity.

Here are the main options and when they make sense.

1. VPN

How it works:

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a VPN server. Instead of connecting directly to a website, your traffic first goes to the server, and then out to the internet from there. The website receives the VPN server's IP, not your real one.

In fact, originally VPNs were built for work. The idea was simple: let employees securely access a company's internal network from home or while traveling. The encrypted tunnel protected sensitive business data over public internet connections. But over time, the same tech started being used for other reasons. In some countries, people use VPNs to get around censorship or access blocked content. Others use them for general privacy on public Wi-Fi or to avoid exposing their home IP.

Good for:

• Everyday privacy on public networks.
• Hiding your home IP from websites.
• Bypassing simple geo restrictions.

Pros:

• Usually very easy to set up, especially if you're using a paid service that invested in usability and gives you a simple app.
• Encrypts traffic between your device and the VPN server.
• Works across whole device, not just inside one browser.

Cons:

• You are trusting the VPN provider. That means all your traffic goes through their servers, and they could technically log, inspect, or restrict it depending on their policies and infrastructure.
  • In other words, when you use a VPN, your ISP stops being the only middleman: the VPN provider becomes one too. A good provider claims not to log activity, but you're still placing trust in their setup and business model.
• Some VPN providers limit bandwidth, throttle certain types of traffic, or block specific ports and services.
• It can slow down your connection because traffic takes an extra hop and goes through encryption.
• Many websites block known VPN IP ranges.
• Most reputable VPN services are paid. That means you're paying your ISP for internet access and then paying again for the VPN on top of that.

Yes, some sites aggressively block VPN IPs. Wikipedia is a well-known example: you can usually read pages just fine, but editing while connected through many VPNs often fails because those IP ranges are flagged for abuse. And here's a funny edge case: sometimes a website tells you "VPN detected" even when you are not using one. That can happen if your ISP is small, shares IP ranges with hosting providers, or if your IP was previously abused by someone else. So unfortunately detection is not always perfect or fair.

Typical risk:

If the VPN logs activity or leaks DNS or IPv6 traffic, your real IP may still be exposed.

2. Proxy server

How it works:

A proxy also sits between you and the website, but it's not the same as a VPN. Your browser, app, or script sends traffic to the proxy first, the proxy forwards it to the target site, and the site gets the proxy's IP instead of yours. What's the main difference? Scope.

A VPN usually routes all traffic from your device through an encrypted tunnel. A proxy is often configured per app, like just for your browser or scraping script (though it's possible to set system-level proxies). Also, not all proxies encrypt traffic, while VPNs are built around encryption by default.

Proxies are often used in more advanced setups, especially by people who configure everything manually. If the goal is bypassing network restrictions or censorship rather than just hiding an IP, proxies can be chained, wrapped, or combined into more complex routing schemes. That level of flexibility is harder to achieve with most consumer VPN apps.

Good for:

• Developers.
• Scraping and automation.
• Testing geo-based behavior.
• Advanced users who want fine-grained control over traffic routing.

Pros:

• More flexible than most VPN apps.
• Can be configured per app or per script.
• Easier to rotate IPs.
• Works well in custom or multi-hop setups for specific routing needs.

Cons:

• Not always encrypted.
• Free proxies are often slow or unsafe.
• Some proxies are heavily abused and already blocked.
• Custom setups can get complicated fast. If you need advanced routing, authentication, rotation logic, or chaining multiple proxies, you're now dealing with configuration files, certificates, and firewall rules.

Typical risk:

Using low-quality proxies can leak data or get you banned quickly.

3. Tor

How it works:

Tor routes your traffic through multiple volunteer-operated nodes instead of sending it directly to a website. When you connect through Tor, your data is encrypted in layers and passed through several relays. Each relay only knows the previous and next hop, not the full path. By the time the request reaches the final website, it comes from a Tor exit node, and that's the IP the site receives.

The security model is strong. Your traffic is wrapped in multiple layers of encryption inside the Tor network. (That's where the name "Onion Router" comes from.) An important nuance though: the connection between the exit node and the final website is only encrypted if the website itself uses HTTPS. Tor protects the path inside its own network, but it does not magically encrypt a plain HTTP site.

Good for:

• High privacy needs.
• Avoiding direct exposure of your home IP.

Pros:

• Free to use.
• Strong privacy model.
• Harder to trace directly.

Cons:

• Very slow.
• Many websites block Tor exit nodes.
• Not suitable for heavy scraping or streaming.

Typical risk:

Performance is poor, many websites block Tor exit nodes, and in some countries access to Tor is restricted or monitored. Even where it is legal, Tor traffic may attract extra scrutiny.

4. Mobile data

How it works:

When you switch to mobile data, your traffic no longer goes through your home ISP: instead, it goes through your mobile carrier's network and uses an IP address from their shared IP pool.

Mobile carriers typically use large pools of IPs that are shared across many users; that means dozens or even hundreds of devices may appear under the same public IP at different times. Because of this, mobile IPs are often treated as more "trusted" by websites compared to obvious data center ranges.

Good for:

• Quick IP changes.
• Testing mobile-specific behavior.

Pros:

• Mobile IPs are often trusted more.
• IP can change when reconnecting.

Cons:

• Limited data.
• Can still be logged by your carrier.
• Not practical for large automation jobs.

Typical risk:

You are still trusting your mobile carrier, IP changes are not guaranteed, and because mobile IPs are shared, you might inherit someone else's bad reputation.

5. Public Wi-Fi

How it works:

You connect to a café, hotel, airport, or coworking network and use their public IP instead of your home one. From the website's perspective, the traffic comes from that location's shared connection, not your personal ISP. Sounds simple, right? It is. This is the most obvious and least sophisticated way to "hide" your IP. You're basically borrowing someone else's internet pipe.

Good for:

• Basic separation from your home connection.

Pros:

• Different IP from your home.
• Easy access.
• Often free, especially in cafés, hotels, airports, and public spaces.

Cons:

• Can be insecure without an additional VPN layer.
• The network owner or anyone snooping on the same Wi-Fi can potentially inspect unencrypted traffic.
• Still traceable in many cases, especially if you log into accounts or reuse devices.
• And yeah, you actually have to physically go somewhere to use it, which sounds minor but is objectively annoying if your goal was just to change an IP from your couch.

Typical risk:

Public Wi-Fi without encryption is risky. Anyone on the same network could snoop on traffic.

If your goal is casual privacy, a solid VPN is usually enough.

If your goal is scraping, automation, or large-scale data collection that follows the site's rules, you will quickly run into IP rate limits. That is where manual proxy management becomes painful. Services like ScrapingBee handle proxy rotation and retries for you, so you do not have to manage dozens of IPs yourself.

Why not just run your own VPN or proxy?

Fair question, my dude. Why pay someone if you can spin up your own server and control everything?

Short answer: you absolutely can. In fact, I've tried doing it myself, and it's not super complex.

But as usual there are trade-offs (sigh). In the simplest setup, you rent a VPS from a hosting provider, install some software, and route your traffic through it. Sounds nice. But in reality:

• You usually get only one public IP per server, which means you're basically replacing your home IP with another fixed IP, just in a different location or country.
  • That can be fine for privacy or for accessing region-specific content, but it's still a single, consistent address that can be rate-limited, flagged, or tracked over time.
• You pay monthly for that server. And sure, you also pay for most VPN subscriptions, but in that case you're paying for a managed service where someone else maintains the infrastructure, rotates IPs, patches security issues, and handles uptime. When you run your own server, it's just you. Full responsibility, full wild west.
  • Remember those messages that pop up sometimes: "An error occurred. Please contact your system administrator"? Well... when it's your server, you are the system administrator. There is no escalation. It's just you, the logs, and Google at 2 a.m.
• Most servers run Linux, so you need to be comfortable with the terminal. That means understanding basic commands, file permissions, SSH access, firewall rules, package updates, and how services start and stop.
  • You don't need to be a kernel developer, but you should know how the server OS works at a practical level, not just copy-paste commands and hope for the best.
• Cheap VPS plans often have limited CPU, RAM, and bandwidth. For example, a basic plan might give you 1–2 GB of RAM, 1 vCPU, and around 1–2 TB of monthly traffic.
  • That bandwidth is usually counted as total data transfer (often outbound, sometimes combined in and out, depending on the provider). It's fine for light personal use, but heavy traffic, streaming, or scraping can hit those limits pretty fast.

Don't forget there are also security risks if you mess up the configuration:

• If you misconfigure access rules, strangers could connect to your server and use it. And the worst part is, you might not even realize it unless you know how to set up proper monitoring and check logs regularly.
  • Without basic security hygiene, your "private VPN" can quietly turn into a public relay for random traffic. And if someone uses your server for something shady, complaints or abuse reports will come to you, my dude, because the IP and the account are in your name.
• If encryption is set up incorrectly, traffic might not be protected the way you think.
• If you forget updates and firewall rules, the server can get compromised.

That said, running your own setup gives you full control: no third-party VPN logging, no mystery throttling (other than whatever hosting provider enforces), and no shared IP reputation. If you know what you're doing, it can be very powerful.

If you want to explore this route, let me toss in some keywords to search for:

• OpenVPN: a classic VPN protocol that creates a full encrypted tunnel at the system level.
• WireGuard: a newer, simpler, and often faster VPN protocol.
• VLESS: a lightweight proxy protocol commonly used with V2Ray or Xray, designed for flexibility and traffic obfuscation.
• Trojan: a proxy protocol that mimics regular HTTPS traffic to blend in.
  • Yeah, we're talking about a protocol here, not a malware!
• Hysteria2: a high-performance proxy protocol built on QUIC, often focused on speed and censorship resistance.

Quick note: protocols like VLESS, Trojan, or Hysteria2 are often set up not primarily to "hide your IP" in the casual privacy sense, but to bypass network restrictions and censorship. IP masking is a side effect; the main goal is getting reliable access where traffic is filtered or blocked.

Very roughly:

• OpenVPN and WireGuard are traditional VPN-style tunnels.
• VLESS, Trojan, and Hysteria2 are more like advanced proxy protocols that can be wrapped into custom setups.

So, if you're confident with Linux, firewalls, certificates, and networking basics, go for it. Just don't underestimate the maintenance and security side. Running your own server means you are the admin, the support team, and the security engineer all at once.

Advanced tips: Rotating and random IPs for scraping and automation

When you scrape a website, every request comes from an IP address. If you send 10,000 requests from the same IP in a short time, you will likely get blocked. That is not the site being evil, it's basic abuse protection.

IP rotation means changing the IP address used for requests over time. Instead of sending everything from one address, your traffic is distributed across many.

Why this helps:

• Reduces the chance of temporary bans.
• Avoids hitting per-IP rate limits.
• Makes traffic look more like normal user distribution.

However, rotation isn't about breaking rules; it's about staying within limits while running legitimate jobs. Good practices:

• Respect robots.txt.
• Follow the website's terms of service.
• Add delays between requests.
• Avoid scraping private or paywalled data.
• Identify your crawler if required.

Simple example: Let's say you are collecting public product prices from an e-commerce site that allows crawling within limits. You run a script that fetches one page every few seconds. Instead of using one static IP, you rotate across a pool. If one IP hits a temporary rate limit, another can continue without hammering the same address.

If you want a deeper look at how this works, our guide on generating random IPs for scraping explains the concept clearly.

Managing rotation yourself means:

• Buying proxy pools.
• Handling retries.
• Detecting bans.
• Swapping IPs.

Or you use a service like ScrapingBee that handles rotation, retries, and geo-targeting as part of the workflow, so you can focus on your code and stay compliant.

IP address hiding: Reality check

What hiding your IP address does not protect from

Let's ground this a bit. Changing or masking your IP sounds powerful, but there's a lot it doesn't actually protect from:

• Logged-in accounts. If you're signed into Google, Facebook, GitHub, or anything else, your activity is tied to that account, not just an IP.
• Browser fingerprint. Even with a different IP, your device can still look very unique based on its configuration.
• Cookies and stored session data. If a site already tagged your browser, switching IP won't magically reset that. You can clear cookies and temporary data manually or use browser settings and privacy extensions to manage them.
• Malware or spyware. If your machine is compromised, no VPN in the world will fix that.
• Serious investigations in extreme cases. If someone with enough resources really wants to trace activity and you made operational mistakes, IP masking alone is not a shield. And honestly, I hope you never find yourself in a situation where that even becomes relevant.

So, is there any way to become completely invisible online?

Short answer? No. You're not going to become "Uncatchable Joe" or turn into the Invisible Man just because you installed a VPN and changed your IP. And no, you can't just wipe your digital fingerprints the way they did in "Men in Black" with that little gadget that erased physical ones.

Well, you can absolutely reduce your digital footprint: use privacy-focused browsers, separate devices, encrypted DNS, hardened operating systems, careful browsing habits, and all the good stuff we talked about. That lowers your exposure a lot. But complete invisibility? Nah, that's a different story.

If you truly wanted to disappear from the digital world, you'd have to stop using the internet entirely. No social media, no cloud accounts, no smartphone constantly pinging cell towers, no connected apps, no online payments, no "smart" anything. Well, if that's your goal, you probably shouldn't be reading this article right now. You'd need to close the tab, unplug the router, toss your phone in a drawer, and move to a cabin in Alaska with the bears.

But usually the goal isn't to become a ghost. It's to reduce risk, limit unnecessary tracking, and stay smart about how we use the internet.

How to hide my IP: Doing it wrong

Let's save you some time. Here are a few things that don't magically hide you online, no matter what some random forum thread claims:

• Using incognito mode. It only prevents your browser from saving history locally. Websites, ISPs, and trackers still see your IP and traffic.
• Restarting your router and hoping your IP changes. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Even if it changes, that's still just another IP from the same ISP range.
• Using a random free proxy you found in five minutes.
  • Well technically, your IP might change. But you have no idea who runs that server, whether traffic is logged or modified, or how long it will stay online. It's not a stable privacy setup, it's more like rolling dice with your data.
• Downloading and running random "anonymizer" tools someone shared in a forum or Telegram group. If a mysterious file promises MAXIMUM STEALTH MODE 9000 and asks you to disable antivirus first, that's not privacy — that's probably malware. Installing unknown executables is one of the fastest ways to lose control of your device.
• Using your neighbor's Wi-Fi without permission and thinking you're awfully clever. Especially if you plan to download pirated content or do anything shady. In many countries, complaints and legal notices go to the account holder, not to "mysterious guy from next door." You're not just risking your own trouble, you're potentially dragging someone else into it.
  • Even if their Wi-Fi is open, that does not make it fair game.
• Changing your IP but staying logged into all your accounts. The account is still you.
• Rotating IPs aggressively while ignoring rate limits. That's how you get blocked faster, not safer.
• Thinking HTTPS makes you anonymous. HTTPS encrypts traffic in transit. It does not hide who you are from the website you're connecting to.

How to check if your IP is really hidden

Alright, suppose you flipped the VPN switch. The little green icon says "connected," and you feel safer already! But how do you actually know it's doing what it's supposed to?

Let's not trust vibes and rather test it.

1. Check your public IP

Before turning anything on, open a simple "what is my IP" website and look at the IP address and country it shows.

Now turn on your VPN or proxy and refresh the page. If the IP and location changed, nice. That means your visible public IP is different now. If nothing changed, congrats — something is misconfigured. And yeah, that happens more often than people think.

2. Test for DNS leaks

Even if your visible IP changes, your device might still be using your ISP's DNS servers behind the scenes. That's called a DNS leak.

In plain English: when you type a website name in the browser, your device asks a DNS server, "Hey, where does this live?" If that question still goes to your ISP instead of through your VPN, your browsing destinations can still be visible at the DNS level.

Run a simple "DNS leak test" online while connected to your VPN. If you still see your ISP's DNS servers, that's a leak. A properly configured VPN should route DNS through its own servers. If you want extra control, you can also look into encrypted DNS solutions like DNS over HTTPS (DoH), DNS over TLS (DoT), or tools such as DNSCrypt. These don't replace a VPN, but they can add another layer of protection for DNS queries.

Not all VPNs handle DNS perfectly out of the box. Always test.

3. Watch out for WebRTC leaks

Here's the sneaky one. WebRTC is a browser feature used for real-time stuff like video calls. In some setups, it can expose your local IP address or partially bypass VPN tunnel. Some VPN apps block WebRTC automatically, but some don't. Also, browsers might let you limit or disable certain WebRTC behaviors.

If privacy matters to you, run a WebRTC leak test and check what's exposed.

4. Don't forget IPv6 leaks

If your VPN only tunnels IPv4 traffic but your network also uses IPv6, your real IPv6 address might still be visible.

In certain cases VPNs disable IPv6, while others support it properly. Either way, check it. If your IPv4 changes but your IPv6 stays the same, that's not great.

5 common myths about hiding your IP

Let's clear up a few things, because the internet loves oversimplifying this stuff. Think of this as a mini MythBusters episode, but for internet privacy instead of exploding water heaters.

Myth 1: If I hide my IP, no one can ever find me

Not true. Yes, hiding your IP adds a layer, but it does not grant invincibility.

Let me tell you that law enforcement, major platforms, and well-funded investigators have traced users through misconfigurations, account leaks, traffic correlation, and operational mistakes. There have even been real cases where people using Tor were identified because of how they behaved, not just what tool they used.

So two simple rules:

• Do not rely on IP masking as your only shield.
• Do not do anything illegal and assume a VPN or Tor makes you untouchable.

Tools reduce exposure. They do not erase consequences.

Myth 2: If I hide my IP, I'm invisible to trackers and ads

Also not true. Your browser shares a lot of data by default: user agent, screen resolution, installed fonts, time zone, language, hardware hints, and more. Combined together, this creates a browser fingerprint that can be surprisingly unique. On top of that, cookies, local storage, logged-in accounts, and behavioral patterns make it easy to link sessions together even if your IP changes.

Researches have shown that roughly 80–90% of browser fingerprints are unique enough for reliable tracking, which means you could effectively be one of 100,000 or one of a few in a million users with the same exact combination of traits, even while rotating IPs.

If you actually need strong anonymity for legitimate reasons, hiding your IP is just step one. You would need to think about:

• Using a separate browser profile or a privacy-focused browser such as LibreWolf, Brave (with stricter privacy settings), or Tor Browser, which are designed to reduce tracking surface and fingerprint uniqueness.
• Avoiding logged-in accounts.
• Changing browsing patterns.
• Limiting JavaScript, third-party scripts, and embedded iframes, since many tracking and advertising systems load through external scripts and invisible frames that pull data from other domains behind the scenes.
• Possibly even using a separate device, ideally with a hardened operating system.
  • Yeah, this is where things start to get serious. That could mean a properly configured Linux setup, a security-focused system like Qubes OS where tasks run in isolated virtual machines, or on mobile something like GrapheneOS with tighter privacy and security controls.

So, that's a much bigger setup than just clicking "connect" on a VPN.

Myth 3: Free VPNs and proxies are basically the same as paid ones

Not really. You have to understand a simple fact: running infrastructure costs money. Servers, bandwidth, maintenance, abuse handling — none of that is free. So, if a service is free, it usually makes money some other way: ads, data collection, aggressive upsells, bandwidth limits, or even reselling access to its network. As much as we'd love to believe in internet good Samaritans running global infrastructure out of pure kindness, that's rarely how it works in real life.

And here's the uncomfortable part. Some free proxies are outright malicious. If you route your traffic through an unknown server, that server can inspect unencrypted data, inject ads or tracking scripts, or try to capture credentials and session tokens. You are literally sending your traffic through a stranger's machine. Think of it like using a Palantír in The Lord of the Rings — you might be looking out, but you never really know who might be looking back from the other side.

So if privacy is your goal, randomly grabbing a "free proxy list" from the internet is... not exactly the smartest move.

Myth 4: Rotating IPs means I can ignore rate limits

Nope. IP rotation helps reduce blocks, especially in scraping workflows, but it does not replace responsible behavior. If you hammer a site with aggressive traffic from hundreds of IPs, you are still generating suspicious patterns.

Respect rate limits, follow terms of service, and add delays. Good engineering beats brute force.

Myth 5: Once I set it up, I'm done forever

Security and privacy setups need maintenance. There is no "set and forget" mode here. Things change all the time:

• VPN providers update policies, infrastructure, or logging practices.
• IP ranges get flagged or blocked over time.
• Servers require security patches and configuration updates.
• Browsers add new APIs that increase fingerprinting surface.
• Tracking techniques evolve faster than most people realize.

If you care about privacy long term, you need to periodically review your setup, test for leaks, and adjust configurations. Otherwise you're just running on outdated assumptions.

Conclusion

So, in this post we learned how to hide your IP address. At the end of the day, it's not awfully complex. It's just about understanding what your IP does, what tools exist, and what trade-offs you're willing to accept.

If you want simple privacy on public networks, a VPN is usually enough. If you're building scraping or automation workflows, proxies and proper IP rotation make more sense. If you need stronger anonymity and don't care about speed, Tor is an option. Each method solves a different problem.

Just remember: hiding your IP reduces one tracking signal. It does not erase cookies, accounts, or bad behavior patterns. And it definitely does not give you a free pass to ignore laws or terms of service. Pick the tool that fits your use case, stay within legal and ethical boundaries, and don't overcomplicate it. Most of the time, smart configuration beats extreme setups.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is it legal to hide my IP address?

In most countries, hiding your IP is legal. Using a VPN or proxy is not a crime by itself. The legal risk usually depends on what you do with it, not the tool alone. Always follow local laws and website terms of service.

That said, in some countries even researching, downloading, or promoting VPN tools can be restricted or closely monitored. If you are in such a region, be careful and understand the legal landscape before doing anything.

If you want a deeper breakdown, read this guide on is it legal to use proxies.

Will hiding my IP address make my connection faster?

Not really. A VPN or proxy adds an extra hop between you and the website, which can actually slow things down. In rare cases it may bypass a bad route, but speed is not the main benefit.

For more context, see which is faster IPv4 or IPv6.

What if my IP gets banned while I am scraping or browsing?

First, slow down and review your behavior. Check rate limits, terms of service, and request frequency. Temporary bans are common when traffic looks automated. You may need to wait or rotate IPs responsibly.

This guide on what to do if your IP gets banned explains the next steps.

Can my ISP still see what I do if I hide my IP address?

If you use a VPN, your ISP usually sees that you connected to the VPN server, not the final websites. Without encryption, they can see more. Hiding your IP alone is not enough.

For details, check this ISP proxy guide.