Privacy of One's Home Address for magicJack Users

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

Let me be concise. When you call someone with your magicJack you can never block your number from appearing on the callee's id. There is at least one firm which is selling info about phone numbers, including mJ numbers and including the computer signature of any computer which has ever searched for any particular number. I assume the computer signature would be the ip of a computer, but I don't know what that is. If someone had the ip of your computer, what could they learn about you? Let us assume you are not foolish enough to put your home address anywhere on the Web and the searcher does not hack into anything. If someone has your mJ number but not your ip, do you think they could find your address from your number if you haven't given both to any entity which isn't legally obliged to protect such data? Remember that you must put your home address on your mJ to get 911 service if mJ is your primary phone.
_ _ _ _I am seeking a serious discussion of my questions. I am solely concerned with magicJack being the cause or trigger for someone being able to learn your home address and not anything else you might do on-line or with your computer, and I am not computer-oriented. If you want to know the firm to which I alluded, contact me privately; I have been ridiculed previously when I have offered the name in code and I don't want to state it openly.

 

[sojourner]

I have never used MJ, but as far as your IP address on your computer goes the closest someone could get is to the region of florida you are in based on your internet service provider's pool of IP's. Assuming you are not publishing your IP information anywhere, which by default, most people do not do. A real hacker might be able to get closer. If he spent alot of time at it.

 

[RobertVA]

An IP addresss is to computer networking as a phone number with country and areas codes is for your wired or cell phone. When you type the URL for a web site (like "http://trekbbs.com") a computer called a "Domain Name Server" (DNS) searches for "trekbbs.com" in an electronic directory, sends the IP address for the "trekbbs.com" entry in its database back to your computer (or smart phone) and all communications between the web site and your computer actually utilizes the IP addresses of the web site (or mail server) and your computer.

In the days of dial up modems the ISP assigned a different IP address to your computer every time you dialed in. Many people leave their broadband connection active for weeks or months at a time, but for most home accounts you IP address might change at any time.

Many of the sites that track users only use you IP address briefly because of its temporary nature. More durable tracking information often uses a function of your browser called "cookies". Cookies have desirable functions too, like remembering your log-in name as you move from page to page on trekbbs. Since cookies are only available to the domain that created them, advertisers utilize IP addresses to match your visit to one web site (like trekbbs) to a site on a different domain (fictitious example: fakename.bbs), but that match depends on your broadband connection still using the same IP address.

The security of information you enter into a web form is very dependent on the privacy policy and effectiveness of the site you were visiting when you filled the form out. If the page URL (visible on most browser's address bar) for the form starts with "http:" the information will be available to any of the several computers that relay data between your computer and the site's server. When you're accessing a page with a URL that starts with "https:" your browser and the site are using a "secret message" encryption scheme that makes the data meaningless to the computers that are relaying it. Once the data is on the site server's computer your temporary IP address has nothing to do with privacy regarding that data.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

The only entity that can tie your IP address to a physical address is your ISP. Such information isn't really available elsewhere.

With only an IP address, not much can be found out about you. Many IPs are localized to a particular area (e.g. Boston, Chicago) but don't get any more granular than that. Some don't even do that much, and all their IPs point to a single city regardless of where the computer is actually located. This was the case with AOL IP addresses, I believe.

Even on a broadband connection, IP addresses aren't permanent. Your IP might switch every few weeks or months.

So, this "computer signature" you mentioned probably isn't an IP address. Rather, it is possible to take the serial numbers of all hardware in a computer and produce a unique "fingerprint" from it. And if you put your MagicJack on another computer, the original "signature" becomes useless.

Whatever "computer signature" this firm is allegedly using, it's not going to have your home address or real name or anything like that. If you submitted that information to MagicJack, you'll have to check their privacy policy to see if they are allowed to sell/distribute it. If they are not, and they're the only entity you've given the combination of your home address and phone number to, then you shouldn't have anything to worry about there.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, at most, your IP address will be linked to the ISP. You can check that on Google Maps or anywhere that has Geolocation, and you'll notice that it shows the address of your ISP and not your own.

 

[JustAFriend]

If someone wants to find you, they're GOING to find you.

 

[RobertVA]

As far as MagicJack's servers connecting incoming calls, the software run from the device transmits your current IP address when it establishes a connection. Each Magicjack has a unique identifier, and theoretically can be moved from one computer to another and still be available for incoming calls on your Magicjack "phone" number. The device combines hardware to adapt your wired phone (or base for a cordless unit) to the computer's USB port with a flash/thumb drive to supply the software and storage space for settings.

On two occasions I had problems getting the software to run on my Windows XP computer. When I first purchased the device I finally learned a work around from a supervisor after a couple of hours in repeat IM chats with first level contact personnel and threatening to return the device to the retailer. Later in the year's service that comes with the device I had to replace the computer's hard drive and the work around no longer worked. Effort's to resolve the problem only yielded repeat advice to unplug the device, reboot the OS and plug the device back into the USB port (After the first and each IM chat I relayed a reference number so the operators had an opportunity to know what had been previously tried). I finaly let the service lapse, despite warnings I would have to buy a new device if the account was left inactive more than a month.

Although the issue wouln't affect late model phones, the DC polarity on the device's phone jack was reversed. With older telephones that might prevent the touch pad on the phone from operating (you would have to use the computer keyboard or click the program window).

 

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

Thank you. Your replies are being studied. RobertVA, many have suffered with magicJack; I also had to figure out my problem, which wasn't mJ. Now an offshoot of this topic: how do you feel about privacy with Google as to personal data? I plan to try GoogleVoice with mJ based on the advice in the following thread and would like your comments. Page one may have been posted at 75% size so increase to 125% for page one only.
http://magicjacksupport.com/google-voice-makes-mj-obsolete-with-announcement-2wks-ago-t9728.html

 

[Bartholomew Diogenes]

Correction: page one was posted at 125% so use 75% on your zoom feature to read to its edges.