Internet service providers are spying on you

Rapture

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This month, if everything goes according to schedule, your Internet service provider may begin monitoring your account, just to make sure you aren't doing anything wrong with it -- like sharing copyrighted movie or music files. While we might all agree that copyright holders need to be protected, we may not all be equally happy about all of our communications being checked for violations. People and businesses who are not doing anything illegal may still have some things they wish to hide from their Internet access providers.

Under normal circumstances, your Internet service provider, or ISP, tries to protect you and your data from spying eyes. Cablevision, Time Warner Cable (an independent company no longer directly affiliated with TimeWarner, the parent of CNN and this site) and Comcast utilize all sorts of software to keep the connections between our modems and their servers safe. They also encourage us to keep our home networks secure from eavesdroppers.

But what are we supposed to do when the eavesdropper is the ISP itself?

This is the most disturbing question raised by a new alliance among America's biggest ISPs and media giants such as Disney, Sony and Fox, which is to go into effect this month. The effort, dubbed the Center for Copyright Information, hopes to combat the illegal downloading and sharing of movies and music by monitoring it at the source - your computer.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/opinion/rushkoff-online-monitoring

This is old news but I figured I'd post it to see if it pisses anyone else off too. Society is just getting so big brotherish it's hard to go to the bathroom anymore without someone wanting to know what brand of tp you use. It's sickening, really.

Anyways. Now we are being monitored by the government and the private sectors :wacky:
 
I will not be happy if this happens. I don't know if it's just America or if it will affect Aus too but the idea of my ISP seeing what i am downloading or looking at or who I am talking to is just creepy!
 
They already are, they have been for years. They build baselines on the type of traffic that goes through their servers. How do you think they catch pirates and such? They claim that they aren't the police, but they throttle your connection or shut it down if they catch you, and things such as the Six Strike plan have been placed. And no, it isn't just in America.

There are a couple of solutions to avoiding, VPNs being one. Virtual Private Networks can encrypt your data and all traffic is routed through a proxxy. The servers don't know what kind of data is going through the server or where you are going because of the encryption. It isn't perfect and all the encryption can ultimately be hacked, but it's one hell of a deterrent.

Private Internet Access (the company) is a nice VPN I've used for a bit and would advise. Unlike most VPNs they keep no real records of your access, so unlike companies like HideMyAss, they don't turn over your browsing history to ISPs and such.
 
I don't really mind if this happens. I haven't pirated anything in almost a year since I got a job. I doubt this approach will work. People will always find a way around it, like illegally downloading at a library or something. It's kind of sucky to think that someone could be poking in on your privacy but if they want to watch naughty exotic videos with me I say let them watch :mokken:.
 
Hehe... Uh.... As long as I can still watch YouTube peacefully, I don't give a damn what they do. Um... Yeah. YouTube is all I do really. I don't download anything besides stupid documents. Everywhere else I go, I do on my phone. My indestructible Android phone..... That doesn't get viruses or crushed, no matter how many times I hit it with a hammer.

Anyway, sounds kinda creepy, but at the same time I really don't care.
 
As Jeff said, ISPs have always been able to see your browser history etc. this isn't really anything new. It is rather unfortunate and a bit unpleasant but it is a service and contract you accepted.
 
And yet the call America the land of the free... you're not free at all. You can't even go online without having a space of freedom these days. But yes, they've already been doing this and have even been breaking previous laws to even spy on you. It's not new news, but instead we are becoming more aware of what they're doing.

If I was American, I would feel disgusted with all the lies to be honest here.


 
I watch porn occasionally so they may enjoy as well.

Ive been pirating movies for years now. So far no problems.
Free music no problemo.
 
And yet the call America the land of the free... you're not free at all. You can't even go online without having a space of freedom these days. But yes, they've already been doing this and have even been breaking previous laws to even spy on you. It's not new news, but instead we are becoming more aware of what they're doing.

If I was American, I would feel disgusted with all the lies to be honest here.



You do realize they can do this world wide?

But back on topic, really they are trying to track the people that illegally download lots and lots of movies and music or whatever else you have, really if you are the person that might download even... 5 cd's a year you probably are not on there radar.

and have fun looking at all the porn that the people on this website are looking at you filthy dogs spying on us :mokken:
 
No "can do." Just is.

What you downloaded is on record, ISP servers are very particular about detailed log creation. American ISPs are the only ones with a reaction policy that I'm familiar with, which as I said, is the six strikes. They disable your access each time your data is flagged (not confirmed) as illegal or copyright material and instead of a webpage, you are redirected to a remediation page. Click it, say you won't do it again yadda yadda yadda, your strike is accounted for and your internet is restored. Again, however, this is just the reaction policy of the major USA ISPs. ISPs the globe over watch and log everything you do, and have for years, it's part of the network. Only recently did that data stop just being for baselines and data caching.

Shace is partly right, but there is no poor shmuck at a computer reviewing the flagged data for if you are a big bad guy or not. Amount is not relevant. Illegal is illegal.
 
True Jeff I guess if you do it once they can be fine you or whatever, but really I think they want to get at the illegal distributors more than the people like you and me who download it, they want the ones providing the sources. Which I am actually for, cause really it cost money to make movies, make dvds, songs, whatever you illegally download. and to distribute it without getting the owners permissions (whoever owns rights to the song, movie, whatever your distributing) is illegal and should be fined.
 
Ah yeds, my pal Pockets has the correct idea. The people at the ISPs are not watching a mirror of your computer screen while you browse. Or endlessly trawling through your internet history. They simply store the data, and in places like America an automated system detects prohibited actions and responds accordingly. Other than that, know one cares even the slightest iota about you or your internet usage. The only time it might be reviewed is if the police are trying to find evidence of much more serious criminal activity. In which case I think the My Little Pony fanfiction you read would be the least of your problems.
 
This month, if everything goes according to schedule, your Internet service provider may begin monitoring your account, just to make sure you aren't doing anything wrong with it -- like sharing copyrighted movie or music files. While we might all agree that copyright holders need to be protected, we may not all be equally happy about all of our communications being checked for violations. People and businesses who are not doing anything illegal may still have some things they wish to hide from their Internet access providers.

Under normal circumstances, your Internet service provider, or ISP, tries to protect you and your data from spying eyes. Cablevision, Time Warner Cable (an independent company no longer directly affiliated with TimeWarner, the parent of CNN and this site) and Comcast utilize all sorts of software to keep the connections between our modems and their servers safe. They also encourage us to keep our home networks secure from eavesdroppers.

But what are we supposed to do when the eavesdropper is the ISP itself?

This is the most disturbing question raised by a new alliance among America's biggest ISPs and media giants such as Disney, Sony and Fox, which is to go into effect this month. The effort, dubbed the Center for Copyright Information, hopes to combat the illegal downloading and sharing of movies and music by monitoring it at the source - your computer.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/06/opinion/rushkoff-online-monitoring

This is old news but I figured I'd post it to see if it pisses anyone else off too. Society is just getting so big brotherish it's hard to go to the bathroom anymore without someone wanting to know what brand of tp you use. It's sickening, really.

Anyways. Now we are being monitored by the government and the private sectors :wacky:

youre very naive if you thought they werent monitoring traffic before now. for once an american is right and isnt just being a paranoid conspiracy theorist Pockets
 
I think everybody had a feeling this was coming one day anyways , with it being so easy to download / steal copywritten material now days, why would companies / goverments not want to see if you are stealing or not. eventually they will police what type of sex you have ( some places already do) who you date, where you go, what you wear, drink etc etc... this is just the beginning of the madness.
 
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