Internet Census Group seeks to measure the global Internet with non-intrusive data collection techniques in order to analyze trends and benchmark security performance across a broad range of industries.
We provide some of this data to system operators so they can remediate any issues. We are committed to the education and long-term improvement of security practices across the Internet to provide an ever-stronger defense against the threat of security attacks.
Our data collection techniques involve making a series of connection attempts to publicly accessible computers and devices on the internet. Specifically, we make a standard connection request to an online system, and – in the cases where the systems are responsive – we will attempt a protocol handshake.
Wherever possible, we only collect security data that would be visible to any entity that attempted to connect to a particular address and port. We will never attempt to change device configurations.
We only intend to study and collect data about corporations and other entities. It is not our intent to collect or study the IP addresses of individuals. Since we only collect and study IP addresses, we cannot tell if an IP address is owned by a person or an entity (as we have no personal data to tie it to). If you identify yourself to us as an individual via our opt out process (see 04 below), and request that we delete your personal information, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to delete any personal information about you from our scanning activities (other than information we must retain to comply with your request to remain on our opt out list or as otherwise permitted by applicable law).
We are committed to upholding the security and privacy of the entire online community. As part of that mission, we maintain a list of entities that have contacted us and wish to prevent us from attempting to access their addresses or ports.
To have your IP address added to this list, provide us with the IP addresses you wish to remove via email to: optout@internet-census.org. Please continue to update us if your IP addresses or networks change so we can continue to keep you opted out. You will receive a confirmation email when completed.