Ipapi.com is an excellent tool in my API toolkit. It converts raw
One of the reasons for recommending this service is because of the developer,
Is Privacy and Custom Experiences Compatible?
IP protocol is the most critical element of the internet. Despite the dynamism of the web, protocols have largely remained unchanged. However, privacy was not a priority during the earlier days of the internet.
IPs and Reasonable Privacy
When the weakness of sharing the host’s IP address to the open web became evident, developers couldn’t do much to change the situation. Recently, more emphasis has been laid on data privacy and the consequences of using non-consensual acquired data for promoting products and services. IP data constitutes private data, and service providers need to protect private data exchange which they collected in the course of rendering a service to users.
The implication is that:
- You can use IP data to provide services to users.
- IP data cannot be used to track users
- If users consent, you can use IP data to target them.
When users connect to your service, they expect you to protect their private data. There must be reasonable interest, reasonable expectations, benignity and consent between you and users.
Reasonable and anonymous expectations mean:
- You can redirect the user to a regional website.
- Base tax and delivery costs on region-specific currency.
- Deny access to an IP or range of IPs.
- Display forecasts with a weather widget.
- Block IPs from a particular region.
Can You Track Users without Violating Their Privacy?
Imagine I run a booking site that uses IP data and weather data to provide vacation rental suggestions. If I could track a user’s location to Florida and suggest a vacation to La Guardia, is my action benign, consensual, and of reasonable interest and reasonable expectations to the user? Your action in this case in non-consensual, and you should avoid it.
Don’t Use Privacy to Justify Low-Quality Service
You should not use your inability to use private data to justify sub-par user experience. Likewise, you must not exploit a user’s privacy because you want to serve them better.
The most important thing is to earn their trust. Earn users’ trust, obtain consent and act transparently, and you won’t have problems with them. ipapi.com can help you achieve this.
ipapi.com is highly sophisticated and provides granular control. Itprovides the following data points in XML or JSON format within milliseconds.
- Time: Time Zone ID, Time Zone Code, Current Time, GMT Offset, DaylightSaving Detection
- Location: Continent, Country, Region, City ZIP Code Latitude,Longitude, Geoname ID, Capital, Languages, Country Flag, Calling Code, EUMember Detection
- Connection data: ASN, ISP, Proxy Detection, Crawler Detection, TORDetection, Threat Evaluation
- Currency: Currency Code, Currency Name, Currency Name Plural, CurrencySymbol International, Currency Symbol Native
The above data points are deployable through a simple XML API and JSON design and can be done under ten minutes. It is highly intuitive, but you can refer to the extensive documentation if you encounter any trouble.
Getting Started
Ipapi.com offers a free plan with 10,000 lookups per month with location data. With the Standard Plan which costs $10 per month, you can access up to 50,000 lookups per month with location, time zone, currency, connection data, and HTTPS encryption.
The $50 per month Business Plan offers up to 500,000 searches per month using location, time zone, currency, connection data and HTTPS encryption with bulk lookups.
You can get up to 2 million searches per month using location, time zone, currency, connection data and HTTPS encryption with bulk lookups when you buy the Pro tier for $100 per month. If your needs are higher than these, you can request for a custom package.