IP Time Zone, Local Time and System Time

🤫 Here's a secret: "Time" can also lead to the suspension of your account.

What is "Time Zone" ?

When we visit a website, an IP address is required. Each IP address has a geographical location: country, state/province, city, longitude and latitude. As we learned in geography class, each country/region has a time zone. Some countries, due to their vast size, span several time zones. For example, Russia has 11 time zones, and the United States and its territories have 9 time zones.

As shown in the image below, when using a New York, USA IP to access BrowserScan, the Time Zone is displayed.

Local Time (From IP)

From the above, we know that websites can use various online services or IP databases to map IP addresses to actual geolocation, including countries, cities, and even more specific locations. Once the geolocation is obtained, the website can use this information to determine the time zone of that location.

Once the time zone is known, the website can convert the server's system time to local time. This is usually achieved by adding the offset of the time zone (i.e., the difference between UTC and local time) to the system time.

So, when you use an IP address from New York, USA to access BrowserScan, you can see the time calculated based on the IP address.

System Time (From JavaScript)

You might ask: If websites can calculate the time through IP, why do they still need "System Time"?

Actually, this system time is on your computer. That is, when a user visits a website, the website can run JavaScript code on the user's browser to get the system time of the user's computer.

Websites obtain the system time of users for several purposes:

• User experience: Many websites provide personalized services based on the user's system time. For example, news websites may push the latest news according to the user's time; e-commerce websites may provide different promotional activities based on the user's time.

• Security reasons: In some cases, websites may need to check the user's system time to prevent security threats. For example, if the user's system time is significantly different from the IP address time, it may indicate that the user's device has been tampered with, or the user may be accessing the website using a VPN or proxy server. The website has the right to refuse the user's access, and it may also mark the user's account as a "suspicious account".

• Data analysis: Websites may collect the user's system time for data analysis. For example, they may want to know when users are most active, or the behavior patterns of users at different times.

• Content management: For some content management systems, such as blogs or forums, displaying the correct posting time is important. This can be achieved by obtaining the user's system time.

Time From IP vs Time From JavaScript

Some website platforms will compare these two "time". If they are inconsistent or the difference is too large, the website's system may mark the user as a suspicious account, or even ban the user's account.

This is because some website operators believe that the real user's time should not have such errors, which are abnormal. The user's account may have been invaded by hackers, or the user is using a VPN or proxy server to access the website, all of which violate the user agreement.

Therefore, you may have encountered similar situations: when a website bans an account, it requires the user to provide relevant evidence to prove the ownership of the account.

When you use a VPN or proxy server to access BrowserScan, if you don't handle the "time issue" well, BrowserScan will detect it.

For example, a user in Singapore, using a proxy server in New York, USA to access BrowserScan, the times will be inconsistent.

Typically, you can manually adjust the system time or use an anti-detect browser to solve such issues.

Your Local Time

Read Also

Browser Fingerprinting Guide for Beginners

10 Browser Fingerprints to Know in 5 Minutes

IP Address

UserAgent

WebRTC

Canvas

Do Not Track(DNT)

WebGL

Geolocation

Language

Media Device& Audio

Client Rects & Fonts

Port Scanning

Bot Detection

DNS Leak

WebGPU