Man even in the 90’s nobody was scared of having their IP address known because there’s not a helluva lot you can do with one anyway, and the average regular person is using a dynamic one that resolves to a local CO and not usually their actual home address.
It was quite normal to scare the normies by having a forum signature that displayed the IP address of the machine loading the page because something that basic was enough to make them think you were a hacking wizard.
Those who were especially paranoid, used proxies (maybe VPNs but I never even heard that term until NordVPN started advertising all over the place).
Man even in the 90’s nobody was scared of having their IP address known because there’s not a helluva lot you can do with one anyway, and the average regular person is using a dynamic one that resolves to a local CO and not usually their actual home address.
It was quite normal to scare the normies by having a forum signature that displayed the IP address of the machine loading the page because something that basic was enough to make them think you were a hacking wizard.
Those who were especially paranoid, used proxies (maybe VPNs but I never even heard that term until NordVPN started advertising all over the place).
In the 90s everyone could find out your address by looking your name up in the white pages.
Americans became crazy after 9/11 and the patriot act.
Also, don’t use NordVPN. Worst VPN service by a long shot.