Situation #1:

Adhere to Online Advertising Regulations

Different countries and states have different regulations that govern how certain products are advertised. Products that are perfectly legal in some places are not in others. Also, different jurisdictions regulate what can be advertised, what times of day certain products and services can be advertised, and what disclosures are required for some products like sweepstakes and giveaways. Advertising online can complicate your ability to comply with those regulations when you don’t know where a user is coming from and what time of day it is where that user is located.

Solution:

To use IP geolocation to verify a visitor’s location so that you can serve the correct ad, Neustar IP Intelligence recommends you review the IP address location each time a user starts a session, specifically checking the Country and State data fields and comparing the results to a list of the locations with advertising restrictions. You can then write a rule to serve the appropriate and legal ad for that country or state, or redirect the visitor to a generic landing page or another landing page offering legal games for their location. Because this is a high risk situation and there are legal ramifications for showing the wrong ad, you want to make sure the answer is right. In these cases, Neustar IP Intelligence also recommends you check several other fields, including Connection Type and IP Routing Type.

Users can connect to the Internet in several different ways. Neustar IP Intelligence categorizes connections into the following types: Dial-up, Cable, DSL, Fixed Wireless, Mobile Wireless, Satellite, ISDN, Frame Relay, OCX (Optical Connections, i.e., fiber optics), and TX (leased lines, i.e., T1, T2, T3 and T4). This data can help you determine how close the user is to the public IP address. For example, a person accessing your site via a consumer satellite, dial-up modem, or mobile wireless connection might cause suspicion because the user’s location is not confined to the location of the infrastructure.

You should also review the IP Routing Type, which specifies how the connection is routed through the Internet and can also be used to determine how close the user is to the public IP address. For example, a user connecting through a “fixed” connection is likely very close to the connection. A user connecting through a “regional proxy” is likely in the same country as the connection, whereas a user connecting through a “satellite” connection may be anywhere. Neustar IP Intelligence also provides several status designations for anonymized Internet connections: Private, Active, Suspect, Inactive, and Unknown. This data can help to determine if the user is attempting to hide their actual IP address.

Additional data that can provide another layer of protection are Neustar IP Intelligence’s Confidence Factors. Neustar assigns a Confidence Factor for the basic geographic elements of country, state and city. The higher the number, the more evidence is available to accurately determine the location of the user. The confidence factors highlight the uncertainties that can impact vital business decisions.

Depending on the traffic volumes expected, Neustar IP Intelligence’s data can be accessed locally using API calls to the highly efficient Neustar IP Intelligence GeoDirectory Server, which runs in your data center. Alternatively, for lower traffic volumes, Neustar IP Intelligence data can be accessed using SOAP calls to the Neustar IP Intelligence On-Demand Web service. In either case, the data retrieval is as easy as making a single API or SOAP call.

Situation #2:

Restrict Access to Online Bettors

National and regional laws against unlawful Internet gambling are very strictly enforced. Organizations must demonstrate geographic compliance. Failure to comply can result in financial penalties, loss of business, and even jail time for company officers. Compliance isn’t always easy, since addicted gamblers will try all possible means to continue to gamble illegally. Organizations need a solid solution that will implement proper IT controls and robust business rules.

Solution:

Accepting a single bet or wager from the wrong country can bring stiff consequences, including frozen assets, fines and even imprisonment. You can use IP geolocation data to verify that online gamers are where they claim to be and restrict access to those in illegal countries. Neustar IP Intelligence recommends you review the IP address location each time a user starts a session, specifically checking the Country and State data fields and comparing the results to a list of the locations with betting restrictions. You can then write a rule to block access or redirect the visitor to another landing page offering legal games for their location.

Because this is a high risk situation and there are legal ramifications for serving illegal bets, you want to make sure you get the answer right. In these cases, Neustar IP Intelligence also recommends you check several other fields, including Connection Type and IP Routing Type.

Neustar IP Intelligence also provides several status designations for anonymized Internet connections: Private, Active, Suspect, Inactive, and Unknown. This data can help to determine if user is attempting to hide their actual IP address.

Situation #3:

Comply with OFAC Regulations

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the agency of the United States Department of the Treasury that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on U.S. foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign states, organizations, and individuals. In enforcing economic sanctions, OFAC acts to prevent “prohibited transactions,” which are described by OFAC as trade or financial transactions and other dealings in which U.S. persons may not engage unless authorized by OFAC or expressly exempted by statute. OFAC prohibits working with certain embargoed countries, as well as individuals and organizations appearing on various denied persons and entity lists.

Solution:

If you are in an industry with significant foreign business you can use IP geolocation data to comply with Office of Foreign Asset Control regulations. Neustar IP Intelligence recommends you review the Neustar IP Intelligence-provided data field for Country and compare the results with the list of countries that have economic sanctioned programs. You then would interpret the data and restrict access to comply with foreign policy and national security goals.

Because of these strict government regulations you want to make sure you are also reviewing several other data fields, including Connection Type and IP Routing Type, to be certain you have the correct location.

You should also review the Neustar IP Intelligence supplied data field of IP Routing Type, which specifies how the connection is routed through the Internet and can also be used to determine how close the user is to the public IP address. For example, a user connecting through a “fixed” connection is likely very close to the connection. A user connecting through a “regional proxy” is likely in the same country as the connection, whereas a user connecting through a “satellite” connection may be anywhere.

You should also check for the use of anonymous proxy servers and other location-masking systems. While not all proxy servers are bad, the use of an anonymous proxy that hides or masks your unique IP address can be a fraud indicator. Neustar IP Intelligence provides several status designations for anonymized Internet connections: Private, Active, Suspect, Inactive, and Unknown. This data can help to determine if the user is attempting to hide their actual IP address, which can be a strong indication of fraud.

Situation #1:

Adhere to Online Advertising Regulations

Situation #2:

Restrict Access to Online Bettors

Situation #3:

Comply with OFAC Regulations

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