How much information is shown?

Question

If you click on a 'contact us' link on any given website, one of two things will happen; 1) an email form (on your email account) will pop up, or 2) a generic form will pop up to fill in and it may ask for different info such as name, phone, email address, message, etc.

I know about #1, no question.  However, on #2, other than the IP address, can the website recipient of a #2 type message see other info like ISP, an email address (other than what you type in as an info field fill), etc.?   I'd like to think that other than the IP address, no other distinguishing information should be available that I don't personally input, like who the ISP is, for example.

True or not?  What other info might they see that is identifiable to the the computer or individual?  I'm trying to retain anonymity in some cases and want to know exactly what they can see.  See?

Azure Kite · Accepted Answer

There's something you must understand, there's two large variables from my coding experience that websites can and are allowed to legitimately pull from you browsing their web page. The moment you go to a popular page, I can most assuredly tell you you've triggered something that's executed a request for two things from you.

It's called HTTP_REMOTE_ADDR and HTTP_USER_AGENT.

HTTP_USER_AGENT is what the coder will do to request what time of client you're using. Depending on what browser you're using, whether it be Firefox, Chrome, AOL, Safari, etc., this data may or may not tell them what browser you're using since some HTTP_USER_AGENT variables are static between a few of these browsers.

Secondly there is HTTP_REMOTE_ADDR.

This is what they use to get your IP Address, and while on the very surface it doesn't say much, it actually does tell you a couple things, which does include the name of the ISP or at least whomever rents that Public Domain IP Address Range.

For instance, I will be nice and share my old IP address, 68.205.95.235, please note this is no longer my IP Address.

I will take this IP and go to http://www.dnsstuff.com and plug it into the box that says IPInfo.

http://private.dnsstuff.com/tools/ipall.ch?ip=68.205.95.235

After processing, it does something called a whois and also using newer technology can somewhat guess where the IP address is located, please note it won't tell the people your house address, more often than not, it will tell the city in which the IP Address is leased, but when that information is looked up you see my IP Address turns into a host address.

68.205.95.235 turns into 235.95.205.68.cfl.res.rr.com

The RR in that host address right there can tell me that my ISP is RoadRunner, CFL tells them that I lived somewhere in Central Florida, Res means that the IP Address is reserved for a Residental customer. Now while all ISP do not use this labeling system, a lot of them do something similar. Also, on the www.dnsstuff.com website you will see that there is a map which depending on the ISP may or may not include an area in which your house is located, remember it's just a general guess and not an exact science.

Anyway, there should be everything you wanted to know.

sagacious_ness · Answer

JonathanM (above) gave an excellent answer!
I use a 'rule-based' firewall that allows a default setting to block HTTP_Header, browser (user agent) and email info requests.  If a website doesn't function properly without that data, then I have the option to allow it for that specific website.  Sometimes being a "control freak" is not a bad thing :) 

This is my favorite 'geekette link' which consists of a collection of links that are kept up-to-date with information about computer privacy and security issues... securing browsers and email clients, firewalls, proxies and much more.  
http://lists.thedatalist.com/

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How much information is shown?

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