Lenny Asks About IP Addresses
What is an IP address? What is it for? I'm new to computers and I keep hearing the term IP address and wondered what it was. Your e-book has really helped me to learn about computers too. Thanks! Lenny

Answer 
Thanks for your nice comments and for buying our E-book, Lenny. Most adware/spyware/malware collect your IP address, then they try to convince you they don't collect any personal information.

Think of an IP address as an "unlisted" phone number. Your IP address is your unique identifier when you're connected to the internet - and it is directly traceable to you. There are two types: Dynamic, which changes every time you connect to the Internet and static, which remains the same. Most dial up customers have a dynamic IP address and most broadband customers have a static IP address. This number can be used to identify your geographical location, and your computer on the Internet. All ISPs keep logs of your IP address. They can determine who was assigned a particular unique address at any given time. Advertisers and Web sites on the also use this information. To see how you can be tracked on the Web by your IP address visit this page - http://www.privacy.net/track/ .

For those that still don't believe that IP addresses are personal information, remember that by now hundreds have been successfully sued by the record industry for illegally downloading music. How do you think they were caught? The were caught by tracing their IP addresses.