Reader Visits Using IPvanish

A bunch of visits from Costa Mesa, CA with using IPvanish  as the IP address.  They were searching different labels, but Clinton was one that came up repeatedly.  I had similar repeated label searches from Bochum, Germany and fewer from Hong Kong.  The latter two had more normal IP addresses.  Here's what it looks like on Statcounter.  And yes, that's some of the data captured when you go to a website and that Statcounter displays  on each visitor to the site.  

Click  image to focus better

IPvanish is a site where you can get more anonymous surfing - your IP address vanishes, according to their site.

PC Magazine has a long review on IPvanish

What's a VPN?

"When you connect to the Internet via a VPN, the service creates a secure, encrypted connection with one of the company's servers. Your Web traffic is routed through this secure tunnel before exiting through the server and into the Web. This means that someone spying on connections on the public Wi-Fi network at the local coffee shop won't be able to spy on your activities. Furthermore, government snoops and advertisers won't be to see your true IP address while you browse the Web.
VPNs are used every day by people concerned about security or trying to circumvent restrictions to Internet access. Journalists and activists in countries with restrictive Internet policies have used VPNs to keep in contact with the rest of the world and access content that would be otherwise forbidden.
While most of us won't have to worry about oppressive regimes, the average person can rest assured that their Web traffic won't be intercepted with a VPN. You can also use a VPN service's international servers to spoof your location and watch region-locked streaming content. But be advised: some media companies are getting wise. In fact, viewing Netflix with a VPN—including IPVanish—is all but impossible these days."

The discussion is much longer.  The downsides to IPvanish, according to the review, are price and aesthetics, though it says it's good value if this is what you need.

So, if you don't want your IP address captured by every website you visit, something like IPvanish would help with that.  I'm guessing the Bochum and Hong Kong addresses are part of IPvanish's collection of servers that hide one's actual IP address.

For those of you wondering, "what's an IP address" you can find out here - and also find out what your own IP address is.  At the bottom of the page it takes you into much more detail about what an IP address is on a page called "IP-101."  This is written for people who know nothing about their computers.  It's like a short lesson about what's under the hood.  And in these days where internet security and spying by companies and government may be increasing, you ought to know about this.