Hacker News Reader

What histories? Does archive.is take your email, phone, credit card, and passport pic when you want to read anything? The most there is is just an IP address in the server logs, for most users, rotated by their ISP on regular basis, easily obscured with a VPN.

This need to make IP-infringement sound ominous by invoking some ill-defined spy plot is a tired cliche.

View on HN

There are many mechanisms, widely used, to aggregate information from many sources into a profile of you, and using your IP as an identifier isn't hard. Many lawsuits find their targets based on IP addresses, for example.

> easily obscured with a VPN

I think we can expect that commercial VPNs are compromised, at least by intelligence services. Imagine you opened a bar and advertised, 'dissidents come here to drink in privacy'. I'm sure you'd attract others too to an obviously target-rich environment.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com