Tracking on Omegle: Can Someone Track You?

Here’s everything about being tracked on Omegle, for example, through your IP address:

The answer is yes.

Omegle can be used to find your IP address along with a large amount of information relating to you and anything you happen to say while using the service. 

Despite that, there are some limitations to what can be tracked, and it is very hard for someone to use Omegle to find your physical location.

So if you want to learn all about tracking on Omegle, then you’re in the right place.

Let’s jump right in!

Tracking on Omegle: Can Someone Track You? (Don't Do This)

What Can Be Tracked on Omegle? (3 Things)

Young pretty woman is looking at smartphone

That’s a lot to think about, so let’s start with the first question on most people’s minds.

What can be tracked via Omegle? 

The truth is that the site gets a lot more information than you might initially assume.

A VPN allows you to regain your virtual privacy.

See here for our recommended VPN with 66% off.

#1 Text Messages

 Indifferent young woman in home clothes use smartphone

Any text conversation that you have on Omegle can be saved (and probably is saved) on Omegle servers.

So, anyone who finds a way to access such information via the Omegle servers could potentially track you by the things you say. 

We’ll get more into how this tends to happen in real circumstances in a later section.

For now, it’s enough to understand that any information you type into Omegle is potentially traceable.

What can be done with that information only depends on the extent of what you put on the site.

#2 Screen Captures

Beautiful young woman using her mobile phone while drinking detox

It is known that Omegle takes screen captures of conversations and saves them.

They are not entirely clear about what they do with this information, but these screen captures are subject to the same vulnerabilities as text communication.

That said, Omegle does not claim to record and store all video communication.

Some videos are likely saved, but in general, the risk of individual screen captures is considerably higher than the risk of full videos being saved and tracked.

Regardless, if it’s on the Omegle servers, it is a potential vulnerability.

#3 IP Addresses

server configuration command lines on a monitor

This is what concerns most people.

Can a random person on Omegle find your IP address and use it nefariously?

The answer is a combination of yes and no.

Ultimately, you are connecting to another person.

That connection is run through Omegle services (with several intermediaries along the way), and the Omegle system needs the IP address of each participant in order to make the connection work.

So, a determined person could use tools to track the IP of the individual on the other side of the chat session.

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) keeps your IP from being tracked—check out our preferred VPN here and get 66% off

What this means is that people on Omegle can find your IP address, but that might not mean what you think it means.

Typically, when you connect to servers across the internet, your internet service provider (ISP) will generate a temporary, dynamic IP address for you.

That address is used to route traffic and communicate with the greater internet, but it is not the IP address that contains information relating to your physical location.

The IP address that can be tracked through Omegle would tell the tracker what ISP you use and which ISP server is quarterbacking your connection.

That’s the limit of what they could find without serious investment on their end, which will make more sense after the next few sections.

How Are These Things Tracked on Omegle? (3 Things)

female hacker staring at the screen smiling.

Now that you know what can be tracked, it might help to know more about how it all works.

How would a hacker find information about you?

Where is it saved?

How is it cataloged?

What are the risks?

All of that is answered by considering a few things.

First, social engineering is the main way that your information makes it onto the internet. 

Once there, Omegle records most of that information and stores it indefinitely.

That’s the how and the where.

Hackers then have to attack Omegle itself to gain access to everything, and that is a lot easier than it sounds.

#1 Social Engineering

woman with laptop in bed at home at night

This is really the crux of the whole thing.

Omegle is a communications platform, so information that people track is mostly provided by the user.

In other words, people can only really track the things that you say on the site.

That sounds comforting at first.

You have a lot of control over what can and cannot be found about you through Omegle.

But, anyone who is good at social engineering might be able to extract more information from and about you than you expect.

What is social engineering?

It’s a term that refers to social techniques people use to get specific responses out of others.

When it comes to hacking or tracking, social engineering is how someone might trick you into giving up personal information.

Have you ever seen one of those things on social media asking about your first concert?

It seems like a fun thing to share with your friends, but that’s also a common security question that is used to reset passwords. 

Someone attempting social engineering might bring up the music and ask you about your first concert.

It seems like harmless information, but to a shrewd hacker, it’s an important key that opens many doors.

This is just one example.

When it comes to Omegle, pretty much any personal information that you provide can ultimately be tracked.

Someone who is adept at social engineering will find ways to get you to talk about yourself.

Once they do, portions or all of that conversation can end up on Omegle servers for any hacker to find.

That’s the primary risk.

#2 Screenshots and Logs

Angry woman reading message on mobile phone

Omegle admits that they take screenshots of chats and store those screenshots on their servers.

On top of that, every text conversation is recorded and logged. 

How much Omegle records and logs video conversations is unknown.

It’s safe to say that at least some conversations are saved, and it’s unlikely that all conversations are saved because of how much data that would consume.

Omegle doesn’t really explain what they do with all of this stored information, but what is known is that it is vulnerable.

Data saved by Omegle can be hacked, and that includes every word you type and any number of screenshots and videos tied to your conversations.

#3 Hacking

hands with laptop typing in the night

As you read earlier, anything shared in a chat can potentially be found on the Omegle servers.

We’ve already gone over how all of this information might come up.

When it comes to getting information off of Omegle, that is frustratingly easy from a hacking perspective.

In fact, a well-known computer expert famously showed how easy it is to get into Omegle’s records.

Running a simple script is enough to gain access to information stored there, and the rest is up to the hacker in question.

Every bit of information discussed above is subject to these basic hacks.

On the bright side, there are things that won’t be accessible from the basic Python hack.

Online Privacy—Do You Want It?

Tired of being tracked online?

Or, are you even unaware that you are being tracked?

If you use websites like Omegle, it’s recommended to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

VPNs allow you to regain your online privacy.

Here’s our VPN recommendation with 66% off.

What Can’t Be Tracked Through Omegle? (2 Essential Things)

woman business person standing outdoor while using cellphone

Now you have a clear idea of what can be tracked through Omegle.

You also get the gist of how it all works.

What about the other side of the coin?

What kinds of information are safe, even though you use Omegle?

There’s actually too much to list.

A lot of things are never accessible by Omegle, and because of that, anyone trying to use an Omegle connection to track you will be severely limited.

What matters most is to understand two essential things that are not available when someone tries to track you through an Omegle connection.

#1 Physical Location

young tourist wearing a sun hat with backpack and a camera

So, if someone can track your IP address, why can’t they find your physical location?

That’s because ISPs work pretty hard to keep this from being the case. 

The dynamic IP address that they give you changes frequently. It’s there specifically to mask your real location.

This helps to maintain real anonymity on the internet.

It also gives the ISPs more discretion about how people use their infrastructure.

So, there are really only two ways someone could find your physical address with your dynamic IP address.

The first is through a brute force attack on the ISP.

While this could technically work, it’s a major undertaking and unlikely to be a problem.

The other way is with your ISP’s assistance.

This is how the police use IP addresses to track suspects.

Anyone can use methods to trace a dynamic IP address. 

Once they have that information, they can work with your ISP to track the dynamic IP to your real location.

Naturally, ISPs don’t offer this assistance to just anyone.

In most cases, law enforcement needs a warrant or court order before ISPs can help them track a location.

Keep in mind that all of this applies doubly if you use a VPN.

VPNs introduce another middleman into the equation, and VPNs work even harder to mask your physical location.

It’s a major component of the service.

Here’s our VPN recommendation—get 66% off

#2 Everything Absent From Omegle

Thoughtful young woman resting after work at comfortable sofa with mobile phone in hand

So, your physical address is fairly safe from tracking via Omegle.

What else can’t be traced? 

Well, it really comes down to you.

Omegle never has root access to your devices, and it never directly impacts your network.

So, anything you don’t specifically provide to Omegle can’t be tracked through an Omegle connection.

Devices that never communicate with Omegle are fine.

Information you don’t share online will remain shrouded.

The easiest thing to realize is that Omegle only has the access you grant to it.

It can communicate with your device if you allow it. 

Through that connection, it can identify your dynamic IP address, and Omegle can track anything you do on their servers.

That’s the extent.

What About Omegle and CATPCHAs?

Upset Asian woman sitting on couch, using her smartphone

If you’ve used Omegle, it’s almost certain you’ve been asked for CAPTCHAs.

As long as you’re not a robot, you might wonder why that’s the case.

Learn all about why Omegle keeps asking you for CAPTCHAs and how to stop Omegle CAPTCHAs here.

Author

  • Theresa McDonough

    Tech entrepreneur and founder of Tech Medic, who has become a prominent advocate for the Right to Repair movement. She has testified before the US Federal Trade Commission and been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, helping influence change within the tech industry.

    View all posts