- Surfshark takes IP spoofing to the next level with the new Multi IP feature
- The VPN has also recently upgraded its IP rotation feature
- The Multi IP and Rotating IP options cannot be used simultaneously
Are you a high security VPN user who is really sick of third parties profiling you? Surfshark can have you covered.
The cybersecurity company takes its VPN’s IP spoofing capabilities to a higher plateau with Multi IP, its new feature that allows users to assign a different IP address to each website, app or service within the same session.
This feature contrasts with traditional VPNs, which tend to route user connections through a single IP address. Instead, Surfshark’s Multi IP provides multiple IP addresses to different websites, segmenting your online behavior and preventing snoopers from correlating user data activities, brilliantly minimizing the chances of being modeled by third parties.
As it refines its IP spoofing techniques to stay ahead of the best VPNs on the market, Surfshark has also improved its IP rotation feature.
The service now automatically rotates the user’s IP address every five minutes, regardless of their location, further alienating data capturers from learning users’ digital whereabouts for potential phishing targeting and data theft.
How does Surfshark’s Multi IP work?
How does this Multi IP mojo work? Karolis Kaciulis, Surfshark’s chief systems engineer, tells TechRadar that it’s Surfshark’s infrastructure, Nexus, that makes the magic happen.
The multi-routing technology is the same that powers Surfshark’s route optimization feature FastTrack and persistence feature Everlink, and allows the VPN server to reach all other servers in the Nexus instead of through a single VPN tunnel. Since most sites maintain a single IP address, Multi IP can choose a new route for each connection.
“The feature takes advantage of the interconnect from Nexus and tries to use all available Nexus connections as paths for users,” explains Kaciulis.
“The distribution of these paths is achieved through equal-cost multi-pathing, or ECMP, which allows traffic to be split equally across all available paths.”
Because different parts of your traffic come from different IPs, the system makes it significantly more difficult for snoopers and large entities to track activity or link actions to a single identity.
Platforms with multiple services, such as Google’s search and Maps, or Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, cannot reliably correlate behavior across their apps.
“This weakens cross-site and cross-app correlation, preventing advertisers and data brokers from easily linking visits or actions, which in turn greatly limits the profiling and reach of targeted ads,” explains Kacioulis.
While the Multi IP and Rotating IP options cannot be used simultaneously, they work on the same principle: the IP changes are made on the server side without disconnecting the virtual private network (VPN), so there is no data leakage in the user’s traffic.
Not for everyone
Multi IP is for users who seek the highest level of online privacy and are willing to compromise on a few potential compromises.
For example, although Multi-IP’s flexible configuration allows users to choose whether the different IPs remain in the same city, country or worldwide, selecting the global IP setting within Multi IP can affect the daily Internet browsing experience.
This is because frequent IP address changes can cause some websites or apps to load or function incorrectly, Kacioulis explains.
“Since many platforms have strict geo-restrictions, if you have different domains on the same site from multiple IP addresses, the platform may flag you as a suspicious actor,” explains Kacioulis.
Some platforms also use separate infrastructure for each region, which means that if the site you are using has multiple IP addresses worldwide, your session may not be broadcast globally.
Therefore, if automatic log-outs from your favorite websites drive you crazy, Multi IP can make you regret it. That said, if it’s your Instagram clicks turning into Facebook ads that you just can’t stand, welcome to your new world.
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