When you're online, unfortunately, one of the things at risk is your identity. Hackers look for ways to identify you and use personal information that's yours, usually to your detriment. However, IP address hiding can be one of the ways you can protect yourself when you're online.

If you're online a lot and you share personal information, you probably already know that you are at risk for identity theft and take measures to protect yourself. But you might not know that this can happen even if you're very, very careful. Of course there will be people you want to see your information, but unfortunately, that also puts you at risk of having it seen by those you DON'T want to see it.

You can protect yourself, and perhaps the best way to do this is through IP address hiding. There's a lot of information out there as to how you can hide your IP address so that you protect your personal information, and this will make you much safer online. In turn, this can make your time spent on your computer much more enjoyable, too, because you know that you are safe. No one is "following you around," looking at everything you do.

It's unfortunate that specifically, there are people out there who target IP address information specifically to find out about people, including where they live and who they are. Although the Internet has made getting information easy and that's a good thing in a lot of ways, in this instance, it's also a bad thing, because these people who want your information and DON'T wish you well can still find out your age, your name and address, your income, and just about any kind of information they want to find out. Because your IP address is your own "Internet fingerprint" of sorts, it identifies you and just you from that number.

Unfortunately, once your Internet protocol address, or IP address, is discovered, your information is simply out there. Once someone has that number, you can be identified no matter where you go when you're online. Because of that, you need to find out how to hide your IP address so that you can be an anonymous surfer and surf wherever you want to, in perfect privacy.

How to participate in IP address hiding:

Use a firewall

There are several ways you can hide your IP address. One of these is something that's called a firewall. A firewall will protect your IP address so that only those you want to access your IP can do so. Both free and paid firewall programs are out there, and the Internet has lots of information so that you can find the right one for you.

Proxy server

A proxy server can help you maintain your privacy online; proxy servers in effect "trick" would-be hackers from learning your own IP address by substituting their own. This is a good solution, but free proxy servers may not be the best solution. That's because not only are there a lot of ads to go through before you can get to the proxy server itself, but they're also pretty busy and may have limited bandwidth, which means your own surfing activities are going to be curtailed. Paid proxy servers (also called anonymizing proxies) provide the same service for a fee, they're generally much more reliable and don't have the limited bandwidth free proxy servers do.

IP address hiding programs

This may be the best solution to hiding your IP address, because it's a program you run on your computer so that your information, including your IP address, are protected. In this way, you're sure your information doesn't end up in the wrong hands. Some of these IP address-hiding programs are free, and some charge a fee.

What's the right solution?

All of these solutions have benefits and drawbacks, and firewalls especially can be a good first way to make sure only those you want to see your information will actually see it. A software program that runs on your computer to protect your IP address, though, will make sure that this "wall of protection" you put up to make sure your IP address remains hidden is probably the best way to ensure your safety.

Andy Green is a Web Developer and Internet Marketer with several years of experience in web security. You can check out Andy's review of the Proxify service which enables IP address hiding.