What speed tests do with your IP address

TL;DR

It's virtually impossible to find out what a speed test does to your IP address. This is not only because the privacy policy is not clear about this, but also because there is often no answer to a serious question.

Ultimately, we strongly suspect that Cloudflare, Open Speed Test, SpeedSmart and TestMy.net handle your IP address in a privacy-friendly manner.

On the other hand, we know that M-Lab stores your IP address for research purposes.

 

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method of measurement
  3. Speed tests to test
  4. The measurements
  5. Conclusions
 

Introduction

On February 26, we asked almost all unique speed tests known to us what they actually do with the IP address they receive when their web page is requested. For this we used the contact options that we previously collected.

We show the gist of the answers (if any) on this page, with our assumption of what exactly a speed test does to an IP address.

Please note that our assumption is based on our previous analysis of the privacy policy of the relevant speed test and the responses of the contact person.

Please note: these are assumptions, we usually cannot be 100% sure.

 

Method of measurement

We sent the following email for this test:

Hi,

As a hobby project, I research online internet speed tests. I try to publish a new study or report every week at https://speedtesttest.zomdir.com/

I am currently researching online privacy and speed testing. The first test results can be found on the page https://speedtesttest.zomdir.com/tests.html#privacy As far as cookies are concerned, I can conduct research into the use of cookies myself. However, I don't understand how a speed test handles the IP address.

To this end, I examined the privacy policies of a number of speed tests. I want to publish this research in a few weeks. This research can already be found at https://speedtesttest.zomdir.com/2024/speed-tests-and-your-ip-address.html (however, no link has yet been made to this page or any publicity has been indicated here. Would you respect that?).

Can you specifically indicate what your organization does with the IP address, what you think of the proposal to store the IP address hashed or shortened (also in any logging) and possibly why this would not be possible? I would like to use the information you provide to improve the information on the above page.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation,
Hans van der Graaf

P.S. If you have any comments or positive feedback, please let me know

 

Speed tests to test

We test all speed tests with a contact option except Internet Speed at a Glance because this is our own speed test and Speedtest4.PHP because this speed test doesn't have a privacy policy.

 

The measurements

  1. Astound speedtest didn't give any response
  2. Bandwidth Place didn't give any response
  3. Bredbandskollen didn't give any response
  4. Broadband Speed Checker didn't give any response
  5. Cloudflare immediately sent an automated response that our request has been received. The email indicated where we could find more information. If the information provided was not sufficient, we could respond to the email (spoiler, the information was sufficient)
  6. Comparitech didn't give any response
  7. DSLReports didn't give any response
  8. Fast immediately sent an automated response that our request has been received and will be processed/answered when it comes to questions and requests about their privacy practices
  9. Fireprobe didn't give any response
  10. Google Fiber immediately sent an automated response that our request has been received and will be processed/answered
  11. LibreSpeed didn't give any response
  12. M-Lab responded within a day stating that IP address is stored for research purposes, and that there is currently a discussion within M-Lab whether the IP address should be stored
  13. Meter.net didn't give any response
  14. N Perf responded within a day and referred me to their privacy policy
  15. Ookla Speedtest didn't give any response
  16. Open Speed Test responded the same day. Previously, IP addresses were stored in a database, but nothing was done with them, the new back-end does not store IP addresses at all
  17. SamKnows didn't give any response
  18. SpeedCheck didn't give any response
  19. SpeedOf.me immediately sent an automated response that our request has been received and will be processed/answered
  20. SpeedSmart responded within a day. The IP address is only used to select the closest speed test server and for detecting the name of the users ISP
  21. TestMy.net immediately responded with the message that an internal "Computer ID" is being created for your IP address. This "Computer ID" cannot be traced back to an IP address. In addition, it was indicated that the IP address is never shared with third parties
  22. Toast didn't give any response
  23. Which Broadband Speed Test didn't give any response
  24. Xfinity xFi Speed Test didn't give any response
 

Assumptions and Conclusions

Based on the information we have collected, we believe that the following speed tests correctly handle your IP address:

  1. Cloudflare
  2. Open Speed Test
  3. SpeedSmart
  4. TestMy.net

For these speed tests we think we know that the IP address (apart from the technical logging) is not stored:

  1. Internet Speed at a Glance

For these speed tests we have indications that the IP address is stored:

  1. M-Lab