I clicked a Grabify link. Is my phone hacked now?

Question

Someone sent me a grabify link on discord. Now they told me they know my IP address, the device's name that I am using, my location and IP address. I am wondering how much else do they know? Should I be worried? What should I do now?

Answer 1

TL;DR: Don't worry, your phone is not hacked.

Essentially they send you a tracking link and they know from which IP address this linked was accessed. They then can match this IP address to your ISP, and might infer a more or less precise location depending on how your ISP assigns IP addresses. This is the kind of information which are visible by any website your visit, i.e. these are not actually secret private information. While the attacker could for example try to DDoS you it is likely more to just scare you in this case. Don't be scared.

You can try yourself what the "attacker" and also any website you visit can see. Just create your own link at grabify, visit it and check the result.

I've tried myself and for example the location is way off (another town) and the claimed device name is actually only its IP address again. Not actually impressive and nothing to worry about. Depending on the capabilities of your device this might also include the battery level etc. Again, these information are not really secret but might be used to scare you since you don't expect the "attacker" to know this and wonder what else they know. Best check yourself.