[Michelle Smiles]

I use mapstats and I get map that lists visitor's IP address which indicates the city or area they are from and it tracks if they use internet explorer or firefox or some other browser. It does not connect them to their comment or blog profile. I could probably put some effort into it and look at the times and cross reference it with comments left but honestly I don't pay attention. I only look at someone's IP address if they leave a nasty anonymous comment or if I think someone I know in real life has discovered me and I'm curious if someone in my hometown has been visiting. I'm sure there are ways to block your IP address but I believe it is a pretty geeky function to do so because having the IP address doesn't tell anyone anything more than what area of the country a visitor is from. For example, if I look (and I rarely do), I might see someone from Bucksnort TN visited but I don't know that is you or Jane Doe or anyone else. And I'm the only one with access to the details - even on those blogs that display the towns of the visitors, other visitors can't track IP addresses.

The safety net you've created is something of an illusion but only if someone really wants to keep track of you. You always leave an electronic trail on the net. I don't know any bloggers who put time and energy into figuring out where readers are from - but if someone wanted to, they could probably pinpoint a general area you are from.