Situation #1:

Enforce Sports Blackout Restrictions

Many broadcast and sports Web sites now offer live audio and video streaming of professional games to subscribers. These sites must identify where their users are geographically located when they log on to watch Internet broadcasts of events to make sure the Webcasts don’t infringe on the multibillion-dollar contracts paid to sports team owners by national and local television broadcasters. By implementing IP geolocation into their Web site, a broadcaster can restrict access to ineligible users by state and country for national blackouts, and by ZIP codes for local blackouts.

Solution:

To use IP geolocation to enforce a sporting blackout restriction, Neustar IP Intelligence recommends you review the IP address location each time a user starts a session, specifically checking the Country, State, City and Zip Code data fields and comparing the results to a list of the locations with the blackout restrictions. You can then write a rule to approve or deny access based on the user’s location. Because breaching license agreements is a high risk situation, it is essential you have 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 customer MLB Advanced Media uses IP geolocation to determine eligible and ineligible ZIP codes for Internet broadcasts of baseball games. They confirm customers’ locations when they log on to watch games to comply with local blackout rules and make sure the webcasts don’t infringe on the multibillion-dollar contracts paid to owners by national and local television broadcasters. For example, it would not be legal for someone in Manhattan to be getting the live broadcast of a Yankees game because that would violate the rights agreement MLB has with local and national TV partners.

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:

Block Illegal Downloading of Digital Content

Many online broadcasters must adhere to strict broadcast territory licensing requirements, assuring that users are located only within a specific country and that viewers living outside this geographic rights area are blocked from accessing video streams. Broadcasters found in breach of these requirements can lose their contracts. By implementing IP geolocation data into a Web site, broadcasters can determine an online viewer’s country location based on their IP addresses. For each online viewer, Neustar IP Intelligence can provide the country location and the Internet routing type, which helps to further determine whether the geographic location of the IP address was likely to be the same as the actual country geolocation of the viewer, or if the user might be attempting to disguise their location and connect from a country other than that country.

Solution:

To use IP geolocation to verify a visitor’s location so that you can serve licensed digital content, 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 the licensing restrictions. You can then write a rule to serve the appropriate digital content for that country or state. Because this is a high risk situation for broadcasters, it is essential to have the answer right. In these cases, Neustar IP Intelligence also recommends you check several other fields including Connection Type and IP Routing Type.

Depending on the traffic volumes expected, Neustar IP Intelligencea’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, QNeustar 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 #3:

Suppress Access to Culturally Sensitive Material

To use IP geolocation data to suppress access to certain materials such as alcohol advertising, Neustar IP Intelligence recommends you review the Neustar IP Intelligence-provided data field for Country. You would then write a simple IF THEN rule to interpret the data and display only the appropriate material.

If there are legal ramifications for displaying certain materials you would want to make sure you are also reviewing several other fields to be certain you have the correct location. These include the data fields of 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 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.