Description:
Global IPv6 adoption is going to surpass 50% in 2026, with the United States, India, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, and Malaysia already having a majority of their internet traffic off IPv4-based IP addresses. Without proper standards, users are being intermingled due to ISP aggregation, and new tracking practices need to be agreed upon to operate as an industry and target the correct respondents. I spent the last year becoming a registered Internet Service Provider to learn all the details, so you don’t have to!
We’ll start with a quick overview of what is changing with residential and mobile connections alike, and what the implications are when every device in the world has its own unique address. We’ll also discuss Round-Trip Time (RTT) and global fiber optic cables as leading indicators of quality respondents. As a finale, a demonstration will be given on how to implement support with a focus on buyer quality and respondent targeting.
Key Takeaways:
- A complete audit of marketplaces and suppliers has been conducted, and no one has implemented full IPv6 support. More and more traffic is being incorrectly identified as a result, and it will only get worse. Due to the details regarding IPv6, each address can’t be treated as a single respondent, and understanding the difference is going to become essential for conducting online research.
- Geographic detail lookups with IPv6 are fundamentally different, and existing uses of various IP lookup services need to be reconsidered when implementing IPv6. Understanding block-size resolution is essential when conducting IP-based geographic lookups. Exploitation of IPv6’s vast size has already had examples of Chinese researchers registering enough IP addresses to have multiple addresses in every US ZIP code.
- As developing countries come online, and more surveying is done online outside of the US (ARIN) and Europe (RIPE), full IPv6 support needs to be functional from day one to avoid mistreating respondents. Examples can be provided on how various ISPs, especially ones in Africa (AFRINIC), take measures to get their users online. When the technology is default on every Apple device, most Android, and more surveys are being done on mobile than ever before, we can’t ignore the issue any longer.
