How Could They
Simplification: Every computer on every network in the world has some way it is identified. When computers are online, whether dialed up, cabled in, behind a router, or otherwise, they are assigned an IP address. Servers have IP addresses. Google has an IP address. Your grandmother has an IP address (well, her computer does if it is online).
But seriously.
Exageration-advertising scare tactic: Your computer ‘broadcasts’ its IP address. Definition of broadcast: “cast or scattered in all directions”. Now, your computer can’t hide its IP address, but it sure doesn’t attempt to deliver it to all computers that is connected through the internet.
Furthermore, IP ‘trapping’ occurs when a computer logs onto a website and it’s IP is captured and stored. It is true that this unique identifier can be used against your computer maliciously. The most aggravating aspect of this banner, however, is that it takes advantage of the average Windows users familiarity with the look of a window and capitalizes on that by making it’s exaggerated announcement appear a legitimate message customized to the computer that it is appearing on. Banner ads that look like windows should not be allowed. This regulation, however, would be impossible to enforce. In the end, these ads are the least of a person’s online worries.