Is this about spying?

[Narnia]

I've just been offered a new modem from my broadband supplier. Seemed great. I decided to run this by the local PC expert who live upstairs and comes down for meals. We are related. He reckons this newer technology may well allow the supplier to monitor what we might be downloading (him in particular) and that made him uncomfortable about it. He gets music from I don't know where but I guess he doesn't want to share this information particularly. What do you know or think? Is this Big Brother getting into our home or not?

[Shu.Kurimu.Sensei]

The supplier may be switching the way they buy broadband and supply it to you and the new modem/router may be due to the old ones not being able to have their firmware flashed or simply be incompatible with the new setup at the local exchange (believe me, this is too boring to get into).

If your relative is worried about getting his packets sniffed (oo, err) then he should be running encrypted data packets and using something like Peer Guardian 2 with the latest Blutack blocklists and also keep aware of fake trackers or servers.

Oh, and BB has been in your home since 79 so get used to it.

[louisiana]

Who's your supplier? Be or o2? Is the router ADSL2?

[snorky]

imagine for one moment you are a broadband supplier with a urge to go bankrupt

enthusisastcally monitoring your customers d/l detials without waiting for a court order is probabaly the best way to make that leap into bankrupcy as qickly as possible

[louisiana]

Quite Snorky. The last thing ISPs want to do it pay to store huge amounts of data. They run on tight margins. Witness the fight there's been in recent years over BPI demands, government demands etc.

However it does look like in the future the government will pay for/store quite a lot of your comms data... Encryption will be the way to go if you want to protect your privacy.

[ClareC]

All ISP's know exactly what you download! No need for a new modem.

[Huguenot]

ClareC's nailed it.

There's no requirement for a new modem to track your activity, all datalogs will be recorded as a matter of course any way. It's just good network management so you can address issues if they arise.

The privacy issue is whether they link the logs to your identity and distribute them; no additional hardware is required for that, just a switch to be flicked at the ISP. You can use proxy servers / encryption (as SKS recommends), but then if they flicked the switch you'd still be tracked. The best solution is democratic lobbying and using an ISP subject to UK law.

Please go ahead and use the new modem without fear that this will impact on your privacy. It's more likely to speed up traffic, update quicker, or allow greater bandwidth on existing services. It might just be cheaper for the ISP (which means cheaper for you in the long run).

[Narnia]

Having read your responses I came accross this when trying to access the website for swapping my modem. What do you make of the comments?

Swap

[ruffers]

Declan Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Having read your responses I came accross this

> when trying to access the website for swapping my

> modem. What do you make of the comments?

> Swap

Aren't Virgin promising up to 50 meg in the nearish future? Can't do that with a regular dsl or 2 modem I don't think. Maybe they're just supplying a new modem bearing in mind we've already cleared up that they track all your activities anyway in the unlikely event they wanted to.

[Huguenot]

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the link Declan?

Things like Phorm and behavioral targeting have nothing to do with your modem, they're about using datalogs from your ISP. You could log in with a plastic cup and a piece of string, and they'd still have the log of which websites you visit.

It works like this: you ask them to take you to a URL (a 'written' website name), they look this up in a telephone directory (Domain Name Server)to find the physical location of the website data, they go to the server and download the website code which they send to you. They make a note.

No 'special' modem required, or foil on head.

They will always make a note, it's like a postie doing his rounds, he needs to make notes. Privacy is whether they share this note, or attach it to other information they have about you.

There's nothing wrong with Phorm in practice, they share no data about you as an individual. They just try and tailor your junk mail to the things you're interested in. They don't care who you are, and don't share your private details.

However, 'in principle' people wonder whether Phorm is the thin end of the wedge, and someone is going to tell your neighbour that you looked up 'chlamydia' on t'interweb.

Regarding contracts, I guess you just need to read it.

[Narnia]

Thanks for your input Huguenot (and others). I wasn't coming from anywhere in particular with the link apart from having come accross it. That then led me to read about Phorm of which there is a lot of negative stuff written.

Going back to my original question,my teenage son downloads music from I don't know where. If he is doing this illegally what are the chances of him being caught?

[paulc]

Declan, the kind of issue you raise there (getting caught for illegal downloads) exposes a whole can of worms once ISPs are pressured to reveal their data logs.

As louisianna says above, our ISPs' tight margins has meant that storing too much of our data and logs had cost penalties in the past and was of no interest until companies such as Phorm came along with a commercial interest in our activities. I'm afraid I disagree with Huguenot's assumptions about Phorm sharing no data about you as an individual - they have said they will 'anonymise' the data, but I feel it's down to whether you trust such companies (or the ISPs who own the surce data) to do so.

The issue is further complicated by the fact that the government suddenly required UK ISPs to store our personal web data for up to 12 months starting in April and, as I understand it, will bankroll the ISP storage costs for doing this, thus relieving the 'tight margins' issue. This Indy article has some insightful comments posted at the end:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/personal-web-data-to-be-stored-for-a-year-1662237.html

In the spirit of providing solutions (which the Indy article doesn't) rather than problems, I found this guide on using proxies extremely useful - though the kind of populations it's written for makes you wonder where we are heading!

http://www.civisec.org/sites/all/themes/civisec/guides/everyone%27s-guide-english.pdf (PDF page). Practical software and sites start about half way down.