What can another person do with my IP Address?

[Professor Sargon]

Can they hack into my Facebook account? Look at my browsing history?
Just wondering.

[Redundant Man]

They can hardly do anything with your IP address. It does not contain private information like your password, your birthday, what's on your computer, etc.

A good read for the general idea of an IP address and what it is used for:

http://www.inetdaemon.com/tutorials/inte...ress.shtml

Simple Explanation:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_an_IP_...s_used_for

[Jason]

depends. people can find out your details by hacking your isp. they can run a traceroute. they can use exploits, it depends what those exploits do as to what they can do. some exploits let you control the command prompt some do very specific things and everywhere in between. they can perform denial of service attacks. theres all sorts you can do with an ip address

[Joe]

They can't do any of those things. All they can really do is do an IP address look up which will only tell them what state you are in and city but the city is where your ISP is they could also contact your ISP and get a court order and find out where you live but that's only possible if there in law enforcement. I suppose if you they knew your IP address they could attempt to hack your computer but if your behind a router they can't do much of anything at all unless you have a service running on your computer that is publicly accessible (eg apache web server, OpenSSH, ftp, minecraft, SMTP, etc) and have opened the port on your router so the service can be accessed from the outside world. So I wouldn't worry if someone knowns you IP address and is trying to scare you.

[doruletz1999]

They can scan your ports, penetrate your computer security and do other stuff once they are in.

But just having an IP address is not a security threat.
Only the very best hackers will be able to do what I described above....
They will need BackTrack Linux for that:
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=backtrack

[flatsidewalk863]

Only if you're on a Windows machine and haven't turned off the Remote Administrator service.

If that service is turned off then you are far more secure and have much less to worry about.

[Anama]

Well, some of us could connect up, shut you down, leave messages, etc. but it is rare anyone targets an individual computer since there are much more efficient ways to get information with keyloggers, malware, etc. that sends specific information directly to a known source.
A router and a good firewall usually stops most attempts, btw.

If you are worried about your parents finding out your browsing history, then be aware there is such a thing as parental controls that can send a browsing history report, etc. So you might want to stay in allowed zones for now.

there are free hack facebook programs out there. your best defense is good privacy settings and no obvious passwords (no pets, the word password, your phone number, etc.) and most importantly do not put anything up that you do not want to explain to your parents or future grandkids.

Really, don't worry too much about being hacked, usually people have other things to do with their time...

[Miha L]

With an IP address they can find out more general information's about computer behind IP. Take a look for yourself:
http://www.ip-address.org
http://www.ipaddresslocation.org
http://www.find-ip-address.org

But there no way that can hack into your Facebook account, history, find out your real name, physical address etc...