# SDMB ads that responded to my personal information

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-ads-that-responded-to-my-personal-information/563187>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [December 6, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-ads-that-responded-to-my-personal-information/563187 "2010-12-06T19:49:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-ads-that-responded-to-my-personal-information/563187/21 "2010-12-07T20:29:41Z")

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Let me ask this.

Every time I request a visit to another internet site or e-mail address, is my own IP address automatically available to everyone else ?

Or does the site I visit facilitate the sharing of my address to others?

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**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-ads-that-responded-to-my-personal-information/563187/22 "2010-12-07T22:00:26Z")

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> [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](#):
>
> Let me ask this.
> 
> Every time I request a visit to another internet site or e-mail address, is my own IP address automatically available to everyone else ?

It depends on the way the site interacts with its advertisers. But without that sort of information, online advertising isn’t worth much to sites. So simply having your browser interact with the advertiser is usually enough, and it’s more efficient from a performance standpoint. It’s a pretty standard way to implement advertising by having the requests come from your browser with your IP address.

In short, it’s the way the Internet works and your IP address is available to lots and lots of 3rd parties that are associated with most of the websites you visit. And, for the most part, there’s no personally identifiable information in there nor do the advertisers want that.

ETA: not sure what you mean by e-mail address? That really doesn’t enter into it.

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