[trocadero]

Finding a location by IP address is not always reliable. The first result when googling my IP address yields a city 1,000 miles away (other results have the correct city). Then, knowing the first digit of a street address gets you a range of addresses that can represent anywhere from 1 to hundreds of homes. It's theoretically possible to get a specific address from this method but it's unlikely and not reliable.

[Firerouge]

The point of the article is that you could essentially get the exact address house address from just the IP of a Comcast customer

[trocadero]

Right, and my point is that you essentially can't. For my address the best you could do is narrow it down to ~30 or so homes that share the same first digit as my address. For this to work you have to:

(1) Have the IP address return the right location

(2) Not have duplicate street names in that location

(3) Have a single digit address OR be the only home starting with that number

That's going to be a pretty rare combo. Probably less than 1%.

[meowface]

They'll be able to narrow it down to 10-30 homes, but from there they can see who owns those homes, research those people on social media etc., and determine who their likely target is.