Very legal. I use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) which basically just hides my real IP, and gives me a new one, and I can, for example, pretend I'm in the USA and use US Netflix, and it's completely legal. You can choose whether you want to pay for a VPN or not, but the payable VPN's are quite higher quality, and I recommend you steer towards the paid ones.
What would be the point of changing your IP address? How does that work? Wouldn't authorities still be able to find out where the computer is located and where the information is coming from? I highly doubt you can actually hide the address. I'd like to look more into this, it's interesting.
Changing or disguising your IP address has been around for years, however some sites, especially ones where ads are concerned prefer people not to use VPNs because of revenue. It's not illegal but is useful for privacy and also for sites that are region based, for example US sites. This is because the sites like to control and monitor who uses their site. I don't use one, but if I was in a country where most sites were blocked, then I would.
I don't see any problem with it especially if you're trying to use it for "safety" purposes. The problem only begins when people use it for hacking and some stuff that align on the blackhat end of the spectrum. As for the legality of hiding or changing ip addresses, it is legal in most countries as far as I'm concerned.
One interesting fact about changing or hiding your IP Address is that you do not really become anonymous when you do so. There are still other ways on how a certain website know where you're from. And most websites, specifically those that deal with money, do not allow their users in changing their IP address and once they detect that you're using a proxy, they'll put your account on hold.
Depends on the software you are using. TOR used to be great at masking one's IP but FBI infiltration made it useless. I believe that if one uses a VPN which keeps no logs unless you are a cyber-criminal who is being hunted by government security agencies then no one website will know where you are from. I know though that there are some proxy servers which will always show your real IP address.
Ok, this is a very interesting thread, one that shows just how much I don't know LOL I wasn't actually sure if it was legal, especially since I once got banned by some shady site (as i was to find out afterwards) for supposedly hiding my IP address. I mean, I wouldn't even know where to start and was quite upset by the whole thing, as I knew I hadn't done anything wrong. What puzzles me is, if it's legal, why do most online sites take a dim view of it??
Changing your IP in itself is not illegal. Although it is just as illegal to do anything that was illegal earlier after masking your IP. So if accessing a particular website was illegal earlier and your government put a block on it, and you went ahead and used a VPN to access it, that is still illegal.
It is not even in the statutes of quite a good number of countries whether or not its legal to change one's IP address. It has to be judged in the recesses of your moral conscience just like many sins which are legal anyway. It can be used positively like accessing offers and online earning opportunities through VPNs or negatively like in the case of cyberterrorism or worse.
It's actually safer for Internet users to hide or change IP addresses when browsing unfamiliar sites. I've done it myself in the past as my brother recommended it. There's an old website that provides IP addresses based on countries and I'd often go there to get a US or UK IP. I haven't done this for so long, I've already forgotten how. I think it does more good than harm for people so it should not be outlawed.
Of course it's legal. Otherwise VPN services would be illegal businesses. Most of the current internet supplier services use dynamic IP system, therefore your IP probably is not static too, and varies widly. But you have to be aware that disguising your IP doesn't make you utterly anonymous though. Thus merely hiding your IP is only useful to access sites restricted in your region.
You are clearly within your rights if you choose to hide or change your IP address. It's your computer and your Internet connection after all, right? Why should anyone - much less the government - dictate your IP choices. You have to protect your privacy by all means particularly since we live in a highly industrialized era and over the years technology has become increasingly pervasive and invasive.
It's mostly legal in many countries with the exception of a few countries like China. However, simply masking your IP address with a heck load of proxy servers is NOT going to stop your identity from being traced. Intelligence agencies can even fingerprint and track you down to your doorstep. Several mechanisms like Cookies, session ids among others would reveal your identity to pinpointed location. You can, however, lock down your private address with Network Address Translation (NAT). Do let me know your purpose.
