Are you being watched?

Is anyone else bothered these days that their every click and web page visit is logged?

And not it's not (only) for GCHQ (although tecnically that's not law yet) but it is so your clicks can be turned into money for the big ISP's, to subsidise the cost of providing their platforms (i.e. being an ISP is about generating money from your info. rather than [soley] providing the connection and telco services).

After 8 years I'm leaving virgin to get off the Behaviour Science/Phorm/Webwise databases. I am also considering going for VPN as belt and braces.

It is not paranoia its called wanting my prviacy as a citizen of a free democracy. We are NOT China (in name anyway).

And for all those of the "nothing to hide nothing to fear" brigade you are welcome to post the IP addresses of your webcams. If you have nothing to hide I'll be setting up a streaming website for all those brave souls that dont want privacy. Can you also include your browsing histories, and any personal data in emails also. Google mail does like to know whats going on in your life afterall.

Most people realise that infact and on balance, we have our private lifes to hide.

I'll be paying more for less speed (yeah right - it doesn't feel like 10 or 20 mb when you're wating ages due to contention ut thats another issue, used to be lightning fast), but it's what an ISP costs if they are NOT nicking your [email and browsing] data to sell on.

( nodpi.org is there of you are intersted - take a visit )

But, on the plus side, free Spotify for three months.

Swings and roundabouts.

They aren't sold as part of behavioural advertising and VM do not and have never used Phorm in any of its guises. The selling of such data and its use in this manner would be illegal as it would almost certainly leak personally identifiable data in violation of the DPA.

What VM do hold is aggregated statistics which show them the protocols in use on their network, they do indeed also log visits to websites, they're required by law to hold records of this.

But, hey, when did facts matter when there's a good tin foil hat session to be had?

If you don't want GCHQ sniffing your web traffic I'd get off the Internet, even going to Europe via VPN won't help as the directives on retention of web records are EU-wide.

EDIT: Is it me or does this entire post seem like an excuse to spam the link at the bottom?

Edited by deleted (Thu 31-May-12 20:11:00)

smells like spam

I use this....

http://donottrackplus.com/howitworks.php

I literally could not care less. Use my surfing habits or whatever they want to do

If it makes my internet cheaper. Larrrly.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

They aren't sold as part of behavioural advertising and VM do not and have never used Phorm in any of its guises. The selling of such data and its use in this manner would be illegal as it would almost certainly leak personally identifiable data in violation of the DPA.

What VM do hold is aggregated statistics which show them the protocols in use on their network, they do indeed also log visits to websites, they're required by law to hold records of this.

For long and complicated reasons the Information Commisioner isn't worth the paper the Act is printed on.

They do use behavioural advertising, although it's deeper in the T&C's now (http://store.virginmedia.com/our-cookies.html). You'll have to explore the Advert cookies. In there you'll a reference to cookies by Audience Science. There are now a plethora of companies offering to track what people do on the internet (for money of course so it's ok!).

I am not convinced that tracking peoples use of the internet is valid under RIPA, Copyright, Theft and numerous other acts of Parliament and I will explain in short form why - for long form goto badphorm.co.uk or nodpi.org. The methods used to "track" your use can be quite convoluted. The worst examples being complex "url state replays" where the tracking involves relpaying the exact visit you request and loggint the results of the web page served (this is the copyright theft bit - the owner of the site thinks it's you tthey are supplying the page to - a neat way of finding out novel ideas and stealing them on an industrial scale). ACTA isn't law in the UK, although the UK has ratified the treaty member states and the EU commission have to pass the treaty as valid under EU law. The main EU commitees have said that the interceptions will break EU law, including Inta's appointed rapporteur on Acta.

Freedom is about being free to choose, afterall.

More link spam.

This refers solely to tracking on their own website, so exactly what leaving VM as an ISP would accomplish in this regard is beyond me.

May I remind you what you originally said:

After 8 years I'm leaving virgin to get off the Behaviour Science/Phorm/Webwise databases.

If you and the rest of the online privacy crew know VM are illegally tracking customers outside of their own website and using Phorm/Webwise go report them to the police and/or sue them.

Your first post, as I said, is nonsense. I have no idea why you think leaving VM will make you immune to any of this, you're getting behavioural advertising cookies by being on this website and you do indeed have a choice, you can refuse the cookies.

Either you have no idea what you're talking about, you go on those sites and take their opinions as the gospel truth, or some combination of them.

Still all that said go use your VPN and change ISP, won't make a bit of difference with cookies as they are client based and layer 7, you'll just get the cookies via an encrypted channel and a different ISP.

So, again, what's your point here beyond to spam a couple of specific sites, which seems to happen periodically in different sections?

EDIT: Oh my God, Think Broadband are using Google Adwords, Rocket Fuel, and other tracking cookies. You'd best run away, never use the site again, get a VPN and change ISP.

Or just reject 3rd party cookies.

Edited by deleted (Thu 07-Jun-12 14:18:23)

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Or just reject 3rd party cookies.

or use browser add ons that block trackers - I use Ghostery with FireFox and it tells me that TBB would have slowed me down with google analytics and shown me adsense and doubleclick adverts along with their tracking cookies on this page if it hadn't blocked them. With some sites it blocks 5 or more trackers.

I prefer that to using the blanket third prty cookie block as it allows me to whitelist some domains.

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Or just reject 3rd party cookies.

or use browser add ons that block trackers - I use Ghostery with FireFox and it tells me that TBB would have slowed me down with google analytics and shown me adsense and doubleclick adverts along with their tracking cookies on this page if it hadn't blocked them. With some sites it blocks 5 or more trackers.

I only see one on tbb forums when logged in. Google analytics - which is often slow :-/

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

I use Ghostery with FireFox and it tells me that TBB would have slowed me down with google analytics and shown me adsense and doubleclick adverts along with their tracking cookies on this page if it hadn't blocked them. With some sites it blocks 5 or more trackers.

The record I've found is on the PC Pro magazine website - which uses ELEVEN!

Edited by John_Gray (Fri 08-Jun-12 21:04:01)

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I only see one on tbb forums when logged in. Google analytics - which is often slow :-/

you are probably using an ad blocker then as there is also adsense and doublclick being blocked by ghostery for me.

One of the best things about this site is the amount of info for the non-techie. I had never heard of Ghostery until this post and downloaded it yesterday. Runs invisibly so far and I'm amazed at the number of spybot stuff being blocked. Thanks for the tip!

Yeah, in Options Advanced

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

In reply to a post by jchamier:

I only see one on tbb forums when logged in. Google analytics - which is often slow :-/

you are probably using an ad blocker then as there is also adsense and doublclick being blocked by ghostery for me.

seems noone runs a site for free now days, either advertising or subscriptions.

I must be doing something wrong (runs to sign up to google adwords etc.).

It costs time and money to run a website. If it's a hobby you can absorb costs up to a pont. If it's in any way commercial then advertising is an easy option. It can be quite a lucrative one too as despite ad blockers you still get click throughs and even at only a few pence a click for most if you get enough it will more than pay for the hosting.

imo no ads would eventually lead to a very poor internet

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

It costs time and money to run a website. If it's a hobby you can absorb costs up to a pont. If it's in any way commercial then advertising is an easy option. It can be quite a lucrative one too as despite ad blockers you still get click throughs and even at only a few pence a click for most if you get enough it will more than pay for the hosting.

imo no ads would eventually lead to a very poor internet

I absorb costs on all websites I own. Sadly now days with the way advertising has spread I feel most people are in it for a buck only. I see sites that clearly have minimal running costs plastered with ads.

Although I plan to join in on the act and start an ad campaign on a blog soon.

There are plenty of sites where advertising is the only content

I don't feel guilty in the least at carrying adverts on my sites. Those in the know who don't want them use blockers. Those not in the know probably don't even realise that they are adverts.

I notice that virtually all websites I visit that aren't selling stuff carry adverts. I mostly notice when I bother to look at what ghostery has blocked...

In reply to a post by kwikbreaks:

There are plenty of sites where advertising is the only content

I don't feel guilty in the least at carrying adverts on my sites. Those in the know who don't want them use blockers. Those not in the know probably don't even realise that they are adverts.

I notice that virtually all websites I visit that aren't selling stuff carry adverts. I mostly notice when I bother to look at what ghostery has blocked...

if its a site that has some value that I use regurly I actually let it bypass adblock plus, this site is one such case although its clear google is a big performance hit on this site. sites that I feel abuse ads such as youtube I will never whitelist. I feel any ad that tries to get complete focus is abusive.

It's amazing how different sites look with and without adverts. Just allowing the site to display most ads doesn't benefit them as you have to click the ads for them to get any payment. Even on sites I've whitelisted I rarely if ever click the ads and I never click sponsored links in search because usually their match to my search is very poor. Many people do though. If they didn't the Internet would probably only comprise of a couple of hundred websites and there'd be no google etc.