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[Bowdon]

European Court Rules IP Internet Addresses are Personal Information

Every device that connects to the Internet needs an Internet Protocol (IP) address to be assigned by your broadband / mobile ISP, but is that address “personal“? According to a new ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), yes it is.. sort of.

Firstly, we should point out that IP addresses tend to either be Static (i.e. the address stays the same even after you disconnect), Dynamic (i.e. the address may change if you have to reconnect) or Dynamic CGNAT / Shared (i.e. the address may change, but it can also be shared by other users at the same time as yourself). Most people connect via the dynamic system, while business connections usually adopt a static one.

The next thing to consider is that an IP address connects to a device (e.g. broadband router), which usually belongs to the bill payer. But the service itself could also be shared between many other users, such as on a public WiFi or business network. On top of that your IP address, which is owned by the network operator, is exposed to the Internet as you surf around and use different services (i.e. you have to share your IP with any server that you wish to access and all of those in-between).