Should I show users their IP address?
I run a small cybersecurity blog, with a big focus on privacy and anti-tracking. I have a prominent statement at the top of my homepage that there is no tracking on the site (which is true).
One idea that I have had is to add to the site footer something like:
You are browsing from: 127.0.0.1 (IPv4)
As well as:
You are browsing using the Tor Hidden Service (Onion)
On a technical level, this information is not an invasion of privacy since there isn't really a way for me to serve content without knowing the user's IP address at some point (except for Tor, etc).
I guess the argument would be that I should be doing as little as possible with the data, i.e. not displaying it on the page, sending it back to them unnecessarily, etc.
I will not be collecting IP addresses and sending them to a marketing company or anything like that. Showing the connecting IP at the bottom just seems like something that might fit the site.
My question is how would this come across to a user? My audience is mainly technical however it still might feel a bit like:
"Oh, thanks for doing that with **my** IP address."
I've been thinking about this for a while and I am aware this sounds like a bad idea, I almost think that myself, however I have very little knowledge in UX so I thought that I would ask here before binning the idea all together!
Any suggestions or feedback is much appreciated.
Thank you.