Some recent moves by ISPs (mainly mobile but others would take advantage as well) want to remove the anonymity of web browsing for commercial purposes. A rule change under Obama would require an “opt in” action for user’s browsing and app use to be recorded and commercially monetized. Now, under Trump, proposals have been made to remove the “opt in” action.
“Web browsing and app usage history are not ‘sensitive information,'” CTIA said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday. CTIA is the main lobbyist group representing mobile broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint…..
The FCC defined Web browsing history and app usage history as sensitive information, along with other categories such as geo-location data, financial and health information, and the content of communications. If the rules are overturned, ISPs would be able to sell this kind of customer information to advertisers…..”
https:/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/isps-say-your-web-browsing-and-app-usage-history-isnt-se
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This article goes on and discusses the differences in responsibility of the FTC and FCC. We have all experienced geographic advertising targeting, or targeting based on cookie history but now, we will see advertising based on individual web histories.
Many years ago, among the more “cautious” of Internet users, there were anonymizing web proxies. Services that acted as a buffer between your computer and the websites you visited. They have in a large part been subsumed by TOR services. If the problem becomes serious, we all may be using TOR for common, instead of extraordinary, web usage.; both desktop and mobile.
In another trend toward removing the curtain between web user and TLAs/LEAs. A judge in a small city in Minnesota has issued a warrant to Google to find out who searched for an individual and their photo in connection to a less than 30,000.00 fraud case. Evidently the most sweeping non-national security warrant of its kind. If its successful, then due to the ubiquity of Google’s use, we can expect much much more of this.
https:/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/judge-oks-warrant-to-reveal-who-searched-a-fraud-victims
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Ridge
It’s a done deal already, Ridge. Now they’re just trying to make it “legal.”
Legal or extra-legal, it’s a done deal.
They know what you think, what you buy, who you fuck and why…it’s a done deal.
The best we can do now is to be so honest about who we are and what we think that these clones cannot deal with the information.
Carry on…
ASG
Once telephones went from hardware and switches to virtual circuits over IP, then all calls could be opened from a console.
Once inter-banking reconciliation went online, all transactions could be traced from a console.
Once US mail went from manual sorting to optical scanners, all mail could be traced from a console.
While there was never any doubt that TLAs were in bed with the telcos and could trace any and all Net traffic plus content if they want….there is no profit motive to do so. Verizon would sell your search about rectal cancer to Aetna is a moment. And your insurance rates would skyrocket…for purely administrative causes, of course.
SSL everywhere will help as more and more sites switch, but many won’t and we’ll be using TOR to check the weather.
The speculation used to be and is now about how many anonymizers the TLAs ran and now how many TOR entrance or exit nodes they run.
So if the proposal goes through, and the public becomes aware of consequences….we might be back where we started. Telcos blind or not logging traffic and TLAs able to monitor if it wants through TOR. There will always be a percentage who don’t care and their activities will be the source of extra money for the ISPs.
R
>>Once telephones went from hardware and switches to virtual circuits over IP, then all calls could be opened from a console.
even before then. between mechanical switching and IP there was digitized voice for at least 20 years, with all calls available from the console.
What was the Fed law requiring infrastructure to allow tapping back in the 90’s. CERSLA?
that’s when the first “public” comments about easy remote monitoring came out.
R
I haven’t become a dedicated TOR user yet, but have used a VPN service for a couple years now. It may not keep the federales from knowing who and where I am, but at least nosy commercial interests won’t know.
I’m not sure that TOR is a substitute for this.
TOR is not as anonymous as everyone thinks, but compromises require near nation state resources. Something Sprint or ATT doesn’t have, especially since many of the nodes are outside US. It certainly would mask Net activity from ISPs and mobile providers.
Orbot for Android works well-
https://www.torproject.org/docs/android.html.en
My past issue has been bandwidth limitations, but with constant upgrades its not so bad. However, its use, since the terror/security industry came to town, can be a red flag with the assumption you have something to hide. Like use of GPG/PGP and S/MIME. There are strategies to use if the data you want to access is “…sensitive?…” which could disguise the path back to you through TOR, but like any other security strategies; take time and effort.
R