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A VPN (virtual private network) can be used to offer online privacy by encrypting online traffic and, at the same time, masking your real IP address.
Assuming the VPN provider you choose has a robust logging policy ensuring your browsing activity isn't stored, tracked or shared, it's only really your IP address that can make you identifiable. So the longer you stay on the same one, the more trackable you become.
What is an IP address?
An IP — or Internet Protocol — address is a unique numerical label that you are assigned when your device connects to the internet.
This lets websites and the like send you any data that you've requested. Think of it a bit like a return address on a letter.
While that's helpful for back and forth communication of data, it can also be used as an identifier and can reveal information like your approximate location, your internet service provider (ISP) and whether you're on a home, work or mobile network.
So, although direct identification isn't possible in terms of name and address, your IP address can still offer up key data points which can be used to link online activity back to a specific connection or user over time.
How your IP address can be used against you
When exposed, your IP address can potentially be used to exploit you in several ways:
- Targeted advertising: Your IP can be used by advertisers to learn about your location and browsing habits, to build a detailed profile for targeted ads.
- Cross-site tracking: Spotting your IP address across multiple websites can help to link your activity together in a pattern of behaviour.
- Dynamic pricing: Some retailers adjust prices based on your location or on perceived demand, taken from your IP, that can affect what you're charged.
- DDoS attacks: A 'distributed denial-of-service' attack can be launched to disrupt a connection based on IP data shown in online gaming or public forums, for example.
- Geographic restrictions: Streaming platforms can block access to content based on an IP address location, having linked it to a certain country.
How do VPNs protect you against IP tracking
VPNs can mask your location, keep your ISP hidden, and make it far harder to link online activity back to you.
They do this by routing your internet traffic through a different server — specifically, one that's operated by the VPN provider. This means that websites no longer see your actual IP address, but rather that of the VPN server, wherever that may be located.
As a result, you and your online activity are hidden.
Combined with a no-logs policy and strong encryption, that can make for a significant reduction in the amount of data third-parties can get access to that might contribute to a picture of your online behaviour.
What is IP rotation?
It helps to firstly think about the situation without IP rotation. A naked, no-VPN online experience means using a specific IP address that goes with you everywhere you visit online — allowing a picture of your habits to be built up.
Add a VPN and suddenly your IP is hidden, disguised as that of a server belonging to your provider. However, you still have that single IP address which could conceivably be used to map out what you've been doing online. This is where IP rotation comes in.
Rather than a single IP address, even a routed VPN one, this advanced feature keeps reconnecting your internet connection under a fresh IP address. This effectively breaks that chain of online travel, stopping anyone from following you. These changes of IP happen in the background at certain intervals. So, from your perspective, it's a seamless online experience.
How this works, technically, is a cycling of your IP address on the VPN's servers. You are automatically disconnected from one server, or IP, and reconnected under another. Each time that change happens, it becomes significantly more difficult for third parties to correlate your activity over time. So even if one IP gets recognised, it quickly becomes useless as the next one takes its place.
This reduces the risk of long‑term tracking, limits the usefulness of fingerprinting techniques, and helps prevent scenarios where a single IP becomes flagged or blocked. For users who regularly browse, stream, or work online for extended periods, IP rotation adds an extra privacy buffer on top of standard VPN protection.
Some providers, including Norton VPN, offer IP rotation as a part of their enhanced privacy feature list. That means it's built to work alongside the already secure encryption and no-logs policy, to help further enhance your online anonymity and privacy.
The end result should be a more dynamic online presence which is tougher to predict, making it ideal for anyone that wants anonymity when online.
How to turn on IP rotation
While IP rotation is a more advanced feature and isn't found on all VPN providers' options lists, it is usually relatively simple to locate in the settings menus of those that do provide it.
The feature is usually found in the privacy or advanced settings menu and, when enabled, will work automatically in the background.
For example, on Norton VPN on a Mac, upon opening you are immediately met with a list of IP Rotation servers available to connect to with a single click. Simple.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
