MetaMask Tracking IP Address

[dwminer1]

Consensys, the company that owns MetaMask, just updated its Privacy Policy to state that they are collecting your IP ADDRESS and your ETH ADDRESS when you send a transaction.



This can be a problem for users from many countries. It is worth thinking about using a VPN.

Source: https://consensys.net/privacy-policy/

[ice18]

Not bothered at all, most websites today are collecting your ip and data especially social media, facebook, twitter, reddit. If you don't want to get tracked then stay offline as possible since we cannot control this abuse from internet users. The most alarming is when they can see our private keys stored in metamask but I  dont think they can,

[Solosanz]

What did you mean about problem for users from many countries? did you mean they live in where cryptocurrency get banned on their countries but they're want to buy and sell cryptocurrency even though they're break the countries law? it's considered as crime.

This is why if you don't want to get tracked, you must use a wallet that run in full node e.g. Bitcoin, don't use unknown central server. All centralized coin e.g. ETH, BNB, USDC, USDT etc that run in ETH or BNB network can track anyone IP address and it's bad for your privacy.

[DanWalker]

Metamask is a non-custodial wallet but it is a wallet that stores altcoins and altcoins represent centralization, so this won't affect your privacy too much meaning once you've used altcoins your privacy is gone. But with this move showing an increasingly centralization trend spreading in the market, this is alarming. Organizations are probably under pressure from the government so they can do nothing but obey orders. Lucky to see that Satoshi made the right decision 14 years ago, if he revealed his identity perhaps bitcoin would also become centralized.

[MAAManda]

@dwminer1, I don't understand collecting user's IP and Ethereum addresses can be a problem for users, can you explain this OP? Do they intend to sell our data to other entities? but are IP and Ethereum addresses enough to sell data? I don't think so . And if it's true that data collection by Consensys is quite dangerous, then yes, the answer is using a VPN, LOL.

[hugeblack]

Bypassing the issue of privacy will not be complicated if you know how to do it, but the problem can be solved if they put a blacklist of addresses that can be blocked.
Ethereum itself is facing excessive centralization charges and therefore we can say that things may go wrong in the future if you are looking for decentralization.

Therefore, it is best to stay away from Ethereum and Metamask if you want a better level of privacy and decentralization.

[Crypt0Gore]

Not bothered at all, most websites today are collecting your ip and data especially social media, facebook, twitter, reddit. If you don't want to get tracked then stay offline as possible since we cannot control this abuse from internet users. The most alarming is when they can see our private keys stored in metamask but I  dont think they can,

I think you should.

You said that most websites today are tracking users IP address, accepted, but you can't compare websites with a crypto wallet that's supposed to keep users fund safe, why is a wallet that's supposed to be fully decentralised tracking users location and data?

Is FTX incident haven't teach us enough lessons? What if bad actors got employed to Metamask team and they start carrying out attacks on people's home and addresses? Yes, don't blame me for thinking this way. I need to, we can't trust the government and now it looks like crypto companies are also in the government.

[vv181]

This can be a problem for users from many countries. It is worth thinking about using a VPN.

Well, what problem that may arise to be exact? Did you suppose that using VPN will be okay even if the user address is logged?

If some users truly want to achieve privacy, there is no reason for any transaction that is tied to potentially identifiable information like IP or address to be okay to be logged. Naturally, the SPV wallet and the ecosystem of ETH itself are concertedly centralized, we can look at things like OFAC, the merge, etc. The way forward for ETH itself seems did not prioritize decentralization.

why is a wallet that's supposed to be fully decentralised tracking users location and data?

A wallet is not supposed to decentralize. You might want to comprehend what the word actually means.

[ifarted]

I don't mind for that update are by metamask at all since they are collecting ethereum wallet addresses when you make a transaction unless your personal identity is known by them and the wallet address you have is link to you then that's a problem for me. If you want to have better privacy then why not use different non-custodial wallet which doesn't collect wallet addresses and IP addresses after making a transaction.

[posi]

Not bothered at all, most websites today are collecting your ip and data especially social media, facebook, twitter, reddit. If you don't want to get tracked then stay offline as possible since we cannot control this abuse from internet users. The most alarming is when they can see our private keys stored in metamask but I  dont think they can,

All the things we are using like Facebook, Twitter... are centralized and they always fully exploit our data without asking us or paying us any money. It's a condemnable invasion of privacy and we should all stay away from it. And we chose crypto to solve that problem but in the end centralization is a contagious disease with no way to stop it.
It won't be a problem if they just collect our IP address and ETH wallet as we can use a VPN but this is just the beginning and I'm afraid they will do more in the future.

[btc_angela]

Not the first time that we have heard this from a 3rd party collecting data like IP addresses and country of origin.

And maybe MetaMask have done this before its that the first time that they have reveal this to us, maybe they are afraid that it might backfire on them later. So I guess it's really up to us, if we wanted to be anonymous, might be good to used VPN or any other tool to hide your identify.

But in the world of crypto right now, everyone is being tracked, exchange are asking not just for our IP but even personal information.

[tabas]

It's not a problem these days as most websites where you're logging in or even as a guest, it's all recorded. You can't skip the process because all of them collects our data.
And expect soon that even those decentralized platforms or any type of website that claims that they're not collecting your data or IP address, they'll soon change their terms and will say the same thing.

[TastyChillySauce00]

So many times these days were collecting your IP, i think that if this is not a big problem. i just remind you that even some sites were forcing to collect cookies from its visitors. As long as it was not collecting your privatekey and this will be fine for me. The only problem once metamask was starting to collect sensitive data related with the privatekey owned by the users. That will be a big problem. Tracking IP was a common thing.

There are so many sites were also tracking another thing like geo location. If you're new with this and then you may be a bit surprised to see that happened with metamask.

[Party24*7]

Did metamask ever block IP addresses from Russia when the new war broke out at the beginning of the year? I think they collected this data for a long time and didn't tell us, but glad they finally admitted. For this problem, just have a VPN software that we can easily solve all, nothing too serious. But I would consider choosing another wallet which is more secure.

[albon]

Did metamask ever block IP addresses from Russia when the new war broke out at the beginning of the year? I think they collected this data for a long time and didn't tell us, but glad they finally admitted. For this problem, just have a VPN software that we can easily solve all, nothing too serious. But I would consider choosing another wallet which is more secure.

MetaMask does not block the IP addresses of Russian and Ukrainian users, nor does it freeze their wallets, and I have never heard the news that MetaMask handed over someone's wallet to any government entity, the good thing about this wallet is that it does not store user data, and I see that it does not track the full IP address of the users, and even if this happens, by using a VPN, you can change your IP, and thus the privacy problem has been solved.

For me, MetaMask is one of the best wallets that keep users' privacy and doesn't require them to pass KYC or anything like exchange wallets.

[Kemarit]

Did metamask ever block IP addresses from Russia when the new war broke out at the beginning of the year? I think they collected this data for a long time and didn't tell us, but glad they finally admitted. For this problem, just have a VPN software that we can easily solve all, nothing too serious. But I would consider choosing another wallet which is more secure.

MetaMask does not block the IP addresses of Russian and Ukrainian users, nor does it freeze their wallets, and I have never heard the news that MetaMask handed over someone's wallet to any government entity, the good thing about this wallet is that it does not store user data, and I see that it does not track the full IP address of the users, and even if this happens, by using a VPN, you can change your IP, and thus the privacy problem has been solved.

For me, MetaMask is one of the best wallets that keep users' privacy and doesn't require them to pass KYC or anything like exchange wallets.

Yeah, but it doesn't mean they are not collecting any data from you, and now that they have blatantly that they will do collect, ip address and other pertinent data so probably it's worst that KYC because they all have your footprints around the internet so your privacy has already been compromised.

And just like KYC, we don't know how they are going to used this data that will collect from us.

So probably yes, a good VPN will do when you try to used MetaMask moving forward.

[goaldigger]

It's not a problem these days as most websites where you're logging in or even as a guest, it's all recorded. You can't skip the process because all of them collects our data.
And expect soon that even those decentralized platforms or any type of website that claims that they're not collecting your data or IP address, they'll soon change their terms and will say the same thing.

Not a big deal I guess since most of the site today secretly collects our IP address and that is for some reason. The only concern here is that, if you are using the same IP address with your other metamask wallet, if that is not the issue then I guess we should not panic. Collecting IP address to fight any suspicious transactions can be a big help, most probably this will serve for that purpose.

[adzino]

Not bothered at all, most websites today are collecting your ip and data especially social media, facebook, twitter, reddit. The most alarming is when they can see our private keys stored in metamask but I  dont think they can,

Just because you aren't bothered doesn't mean others shouldn't be bothered too. Yeah social media platforms like facebook and twitter is collecting your data, but you do have options to control what they can collect and how they can process your data. You can request for all the data they have about you and some data can also be permanently removed. If they can collect your IP data, then what is stopping them from accessing your private keys?

If you don't want to get tracked then stay offline as possible since we cannot control this abuse from internet users.

Staying offline isn't the solution. It's like saying cut off your legs if your leg hurts.

[tabas]

It's not a problem these days as most websites where you're logging in or even as a guest, it's all recorded. You can't skip the process because all of them collects our data.
And expect soon that even those decentralized platforms or any type of website that claims that they're not collecting your data or IP address, they'll soon change their terms and will say the same thing.

Not a big deal I guess since most of the site today secretly collects our IP address and that is for some reason. The only concern here is that, if you are using the same IP address with your other metamask wallet, if that is not the issue then I guess we should not panic. Collecting IP address to fight any suspicious transactions can be a big help, most probably this will serve for that purpose.

Yes, no longer a big deal but what's alarming when these apps and websites exposes our IPs and sells it to advertisers. They've got our logs and patterns.
Well, this has been happening with Facebook and Google to name a few. Whenever you say something and you're with your phone, you'll notice that there's the appearance of that product eventually on your profile or news feed that you've just spoken because they're keeping our data that includes IP.

[Baofeng]

They cleared it though,

The company stated that the policy has always relayed how certain types of personal information are automatically collected, which could include IP addresses. According to ConsenSys, the latest updates were in the act of transparency as to how Infura, MetaMask’s default Remote Procedure Call, works with user data.

ConsenSys highlighted that MetaMask itself does not collect IP addresses. Rather, the policy says users running the wallet through Infura applications are subject to data collection.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/consensys-addresses-metamask-ip-collection-claims-nothing-has-changed

So they have been doing this since the inception, that's how I interpret it, so yes nothing has change.

And they assured that the info collected are not going to be taken advantage of, meaning that they won't monetized those data. Obviously though it is with great skepticism.