Queries for VPN Providers Rise after Repeal of Internet Privacy Rules

Megalith

Megalith

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VPNs are suddenly a hot topic now that Congress has voted against the FCC’s internet privacy rules that would have prevented internet service providers from selling customer data without a clear opt-in. I assume that most of you know what a VPN is and that you may still screwed if you have something to hide and your provider gets subpoenaed, so I will just use this as an opportunity to shill for the better private networks (AirVPN and the Viscosity client have been working pretty swell for me).

The uptick in searches (which is relative, and likely doesn't mean everyone on the internet is seeking out a VPN) matched a broader, somewhat manic response to Congress' actions. One man is offering to sell his internet browsing history on eBay, so that he can benefit from this apparent commodity. Another ticked-off internet user started a campaign to buy the internet histories of legislators and a bunch of other people to make them publicly searchable. Fatemeh Khatibloo, a principal analyst at tech research firm Forrester who focuses on privacy, pointed out that nothing has actually changed about the way ISPs treat your data. That's because the FCC rules hadn't gone into effect yet.
 
But everyone knows Inprivate browsing hides the sites you go to. /sarcasm
 
my mandatory PSA for helping your less tech savy family members ( or maybe even yourself)
These are install once and forget methods.

https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
plugin for most browser (including android support) for forcing more website to use https

https://www.dnscrypt.org/
Encrypt you DNS request so the isp can track you this way


These are not as good as a true VPN but free and don't need maintenance after setup.

also set your beloved/coworkers/friends/family to always block third party cookies. ive been doing this for years and never had a site not work with no 3rd party cookies support
 
Megalith said:
Fatemeh Khatibloo, a principal analyst at tech research firm Forrester who focuses on privacy, pointed out that nothing has actually changed about the way ISPs treat your data. That's because the FCC rules hadn't gone into effect yet.
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So I went to Comcast to see my marketing preferences and if they allowed my surfing data to be shared with 3rd parties. Sure enough mine was turned on without my consent.
 
Its different if your ISP sells your data, they know your address, ssn (probably?), etc. Your boss buys your browsing data, doesn't like what you've been doing and you get fired. Calling it here first!
 
So is it that they can sell *your* data specifically or a generalized subset of customers, or? I keep seeing these articles about a crowd fund to "buy" certain people's browsing data specifically. I'm not entirely sure that is true, is it?
 
Too much ado about nothing.

First, a VPN will not save you.

Second, the FCC could only regulate communications companies, the FTC, who is supposed to be regulating these privacy issues has the authority to do so and although their rules were pretty weak in the past, I am holding out hope that once the FTC is put back in charge of this stuff and this bullshit grab by the FCC is put down, that they will in fact pass some decent privacy rules that have some effect acrossed the entire business sector.
 
I promise you all this, either the US or the UK will be the first western government to ban the use of VPNs by members of the public within 3-5 years, possibly less. More governments will follow the lead of the first, sighting that government's actions as justification.

It will be said that it's because terrorists are using them to communicate, to plan and hide what they are doing. They will probably use or create one or more terror events as evidence to make the public support it, and to create justification for their act. It will be said that it is for our protection, and anyone outspoken will be a terror sympathiser, a trouble maker, or involved in possible illegal acts, be of dubious character, or simply unpatriotic.

If any VPN services remain open to the public, it will be monitored by the government, and be subject to investigation.

They will do the same with encryption. It will all be made illegal unless it's for the purpose of business and commerce.
 
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DigitalGriffin said:
So I went to Comcast to see my marketing preferences and if they allowed my surfing data to be shared with 3rd parties. Sure enough mine was turned on without my consent.
Click to expand...

Where are the marketing preferences at? I can't find them anywhere!
Also, I have NEVER used my comcast email for anything, and have never given it out.... Yet It is full of spam. Fun stuff.
 
Stimpy88 said:
I promise you all this, either the US or the UK will be the first western government to ban the use of VPNs by members of the public within 3-5 years, possibly less. More governments will follow the lead of the first, sighting that government's actions as justification.

It will be said that it's because terrorists are using them to communicate, to plan and hide what they are doing. They will probably use or create one or more terror events as evidence to make the public support it, and to create justification for their act. It will be said that it is for our protection, and anyone outspoken will be a terror sympathiser, a trouble maker, or involved in possible illegal acts, be of dubious character, or simply unpatriotic.

If any VPN services remain open to the public, it will be monitored by the government, and be subject to investigation.

They will do the same with encryption. It will all be made illegal unless it's for the purpose of business and commerce.
Click to expand...

No it won't.

I just told you a VPN will not save you but people keep insisting that a VPN will give you some sort of perfect security. It will not. So there is no reason for governments to ban them.
 
lcpiper said:
No it won't.

I just told you a VPN will not save you but people keep insisting that a VPN will give you some sort of perfect security. It will not. So there is no reason for governments to ban them.
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Maybe instead of saying "I SAID SO" try explaining why things are the way you say..
I would be quite curios why you think a VPN does not protect you again the ISP snooping. I know there is a lot of tracking VPN does not protect you against. but i currenlty cnat figure out why it would not help against the isp snooping/
 
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lcpiper said:
Too much ado about nothing.

First, a VPN will not save you.

Second, the FCC could only regulate communications companies, the FTC, who is supposed to be regulating these privacy issues has the authority to do so and although their rules were pretty weak in the past, I am holding out hope that once the FTC is put back in charge of this stuff and this bullshit grab by the FCC is put down, that they will in fact pass some decent privacy rules that have some effect acrossed the entire business sector.
Click to expand...


A VPN is not perfect, because you still have to trust your VPN, and with those sly fuckers over at the NSA with their tentacles into everything, who knows.

That being said, if you find a trustworthy VPN, AND you don't do things like stay logged in to googe/facebook/something else that tracks you, and don't keep cookies, you can be reasonably secure. Nothing is perfect, but at lest you make yourself a lot more of a difficult target.

Probably not a difficult enough target that the silent black helicopters can't get you if they are really trying to go after you, but difficult enough that you aren't swept up in regular run of the mill surveillance and data exploitation for commercial purposes.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
A VPN is not perfect, because you still have to trust your VPN, and with those sly fuckers over at the NSA with their tentacles into everything, who knows.

That being said, if you find a trustworthy VPN, AND you don't do things like stay logged in to googe/facebook/something else that tracks you, and don't keep cookies, you can be reasonably secure. Nothing is perfect, but at lest you make yourself a lot more of a difficult target.

Probably not a difficult enough target that the silent black helicopters can't get you if they are really trying to go after you, but difficult enough that you aren't swept up in regular run of the mill surveillance and data exploitation for commercial purposes.
Click to expand...

exactly my point a vpn will protect me against my ISP so far asi understand that why iwas curios in icpiper saying it wouldn'tt protect against ISP snooping

offcause you just removde the trust to the next end point and sites can still track you. just not back to you ip

browsersinfgerprinting is sadly a thing and it is pretty hard to protects againt


Anyway i wanted to drop a bit of ani rtakcing/secirty tplugin i use.

I've use noscript lug bit set it to automaticalle white list the domain i visit. so most pages works withouth me having to do a lot of stuff. but third party stuff icleaned out.
i few sites here and ther i have to give some permission because the functionallity is based on 3rd party provides.
also i setup my FF to accept all first party cookies but deleta them at the end of a session and a whitelist for cookies i want to keep. not much setup tons of compatibility
also set reffer head to the systme going ot it works on all site i know and twats tracking you that way.
install a random canvas plugin will help a bit against browser fingerprinting but still to much entropy left to really twat browserfingerprinting

if people wnat to read more about how website can track and identify you uniquely even through you use VPN read here
https://panopticlick.eff.org/
 
Another ticked-off internet user started a campaign to buy the internet histories of legislators and a bunch of other people to make them publicly searchable.
Click to expand...

Sadly, that's the only way it'll get addressed then. A lot of legislators won't care until it's someone they know or the people who funded their campaigns.
 
Spidey329 said:
Sadly, that's the only way it'll get addressed then. A lot of legislators won't care until it's someone they know or the people who funded their campaigns.
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The fuckers probably included a special line item excluding lawmakers from the provision.
 
Lets not forget that most of these VPN providers log your connection. Yes, even a lot of the providers that say they don't log, do!
 
lcpiper said:
No it won't.

I just told you a VPN will not save you but people keep insisting that a VPN will give you some sort of perfect security. It will not. So there is no reason for governments to ban them.
Click to expand...

Read my post again. Comprehension is a must.
 
The same rules and laws that were in place a week or two ago are the same rules we have today. But NOW people want to use a VPN? The joy of media hype....

Yes, a law was passed by the FCC last fall that required ISPs to use Opt-In procedures regarding revealing user data. And yes, this was a good thing for consumers. However, that law was never enacted. It was suppose to go into affect March 1st, but the new Chairman of the FCC never put it into place. So the same rules that were in place previously are the same rules that are in place now.

But the truth is there is so much watching of EUA's and company privacy policies, nearly EVERY ISP out there in the US already use Opt-In procedures for revealing user data for fear of further public backlash against them. One of the things I do agree with the ISP's on is regarding their arguments when this law passed last fall of, "What about Google, Facebook, and other non-ISPs who collect user data?" But, as stated before, FCC has no jurisdiction over those entities.

So, people are panicking about privacy regarding the removal of a law that was never in affect, controlling rules for ISPs that were already being followed, while they continue to share everything about themselves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. America is incredibly bipolar.
 
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SvenBent said:
https://www.dnscrypt.org/
Encrypt you DNS request so the isp can track you this way
Click to expand...

I downloaded the client and set it up. Does that app have to be open and running all the time to work or do you run it once then close it? Looked on the website and found no instructions regarding this. If I have to run it every time I use the web then it is too much of a hassle.
 
scojer said:
Where are the marketing preferences at? I can't find them anywhere!
Also, I have NEVER used my comcast email for anything, and have never given it out.... Yet It is full of spam. Fun stuff.
Click to expand...

Go to XFinity home page.
My Account->
Users & Preferences sub tab->
Primary User sub tab->
Manage Advertising Preferences link
 
ccmfreak2 said:
The same rules and laws that were in place a week or two ago are the same rules we have today. But NOW people want to use a VPN? The joy of media hype....

Yes, a law was passed by the FCC last fall that required ISPs to use Opt-In procedures regarding revealing user data. And yes, this was a good thing for consumers. However, that law was never enacted. It was suppose to go into affect March 1st, but the new Chairman of the FCC never put it into place. So the same rules that were in place previously are the same rules that are in place now.

But the truth is there is so much watching of EUA's and company privacy policies, nearly EVERY ISP out there in the US already use Opt-In procedures for revealing user data for fear of further public backlash against them. One of the things I do agree with the ISP's on is regarding their arguments when this law passed last fall of, "What about Google, Facebook, and other non-ISPs who collect user data?" But, as stated before, FCC has no jurisdiction over those entities.

So, people are panicking about privacy regarding the removal of a law that was never in affect, controlling rules for ISPs that were already being followed, while they continue to share everything about themselves on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. America is incredibly bipolar.
Click to expand...


One thing I do disagree on is the Google/Facebook/etc argument. These services are provided for "free" in exchange for the ability to mine that data which is where the revenue stream comes from. ISPs however already have a revenue stream in place (charging you for internet service) and, unlike online services where you can choose not to use a specific service if you don't like their privacy policies, there's a very real lack of competition in the ISP space meaning that, in many places like where I live, you get a whole 2 choices for ISPs and one of them isn't really even a choice. Now if ISPs were providing a free or heavily discounted service offering (that isn't a complete joke speed/bandwidth-wise) that you pay for by allowing them to mine the data sent and received on it then they may have an argument but that's not the case and likely never will be.

And also, if this is such a huge deal now, where were these hand-wringers 2 weeks ago when this was sitting in front of the Senate? People want to complain and moan about these things after the fact but that's not how government (at least, in this country) works.
 
rezerekted said:
I downloaded the client and set it up. Does that app have to be open and running all the time to work or do you run it once then close it? Looked on the website and found no instructions regarding this. If I have to run it every time I use the web then it is too much of a hassle.
Click to expand...
You have to have it open. if you close it you will not have dns acess

What happesn is
- Browser maeks af DNS request to dns server 127.0.0.1( you own pc)
- This softwarepickups the request that never left you system because it used the loopbakc IP
- This sofware now makes a encrypted DNS request to the selected DNS server on the internet
- This software recievede the DNS answer over the encrypted connection and gives it back to your browser
- browser connect to the IP of the DNS request


personally i only use it on my laptop. as I use tomato software on my router that supports this directly. so any unit connection on my own netwrosk used my router as DNS server which forward the request encrypted to the encrypted dns server


I don't know how much hazzle it can be to have program automatic start on windows start.
you don't need to do anything once you have set it up
 
SvenBent said:
In other news: Am I the only one that see the irony in that people wanting more privacy appaers to bee sercrhing for VPN... on GOOGLE ?
Click to expand...

Most of these people have no idea about anything, its just the new thing they are told to be mad about, so they are mad about it. Most also don't understand these rules were NEVER in effect, this was and still is going on, it just never stopped, as this was a block BEFORE the rules took effect.

DigitalGriffin said:
So I went to Comcast to see my marketing preferences and if they allowed my surfing data to be shared with 3rd parties. Sure enough mine was turned on without my consent.
Click to expand...

You signed a contract and TOS, they do indeed have your consent, if you are so worried about privacy you should be reading those contracts and TOS to understand what is being shared.

Galvin said:
Its different if your ISP sells your data, they know your address, ssn (probably?), etc. Your boss buys your browsing data, doesn't like what you've been doing and you get fired. Calling it here first!
Click to expand...

They sell anonymised aggregate data, they don't sell personal information. No name, address or SSN is sold, this is the biggest problem with reports on this and what people think is going on. You CAN NOT go to the ISP and ask to buy *this* persons browsing data. See link below about the people running scams to raise money to buy congresses browser history.

TwiceOver said:
So is it that they can sell *your* data specifically or a generalized subset of customers, or? I keep seeing these articles about a crowd fund to "buy" certain people's browsing data specifically. I'm not entirely sure that is true, is it?
Click to expand...

It is anonymised aggregate data, you can not buy a single persons data.

captaindiptoad said:
Where can I give this man all my money!
Click to expand...

If you want to give all your money to a scam? Sure, but this shows (sadly) even people on a tech forum have almost no understanding of how this works.

No, you can't buy congresses internet data.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Most of these people have no idea about anything,

It is anonymised aggregate data, you can not buy a single persons data.



If you want to give all your money to a scam? Sure, but this shows (sadly) even people on a tech forum have almost no understanding of how this works.

No, you can't buy congresses internet data.
Click to expand...

From your linked article,
Now, what is true is that it's still a bad thing to have companies holding this much data about our private internet usage. And there are real privacy risks of data leaking, and potentially then being tied back to individuals, because it's basically impossible to anonymize that kind of data entirely.
Click to expand...

I can agree that this isn't a willy nilly release of individuals data. On the other hand, I can also expect that individuals can be linked to specific data with high levels of certainty with some analysis. Buying a shitload of data, that likely contains targeted peoples data within it, reasons out to the potential to parse that data.

It can't be presented as "this is congressman Big Dick's data!", but it could be "This is data for people matching many properties of Mr. Dick, in a location near Mr. Dick, collected at a time that Mr. Dick was there."
 
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Stimpy88 said:
Read my post again. Comprehension is a must.
Click to expand...

I comprehend just fine Stimpy88 and I am taking the opposite position because I know that VPNs are not completely secure and that they are not a formidable barrier to the Intelligence services. So there is no reason to ban or control VPNs. The will not ban or restrict encryption services either. In my opinion, you are wrong, Nostradamus will not be impressed.

How many years must we wait for your prediction to come true?
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
A VPN is not perfect, because you still have to trust your VPN, and with those sly fuckers over at the NSA with their tentacles into everything, who knows.

That being said, if you find a trustworthy VPN, AND you don't do things like stay logged in to google/facebook/something else that tracks you, and don't keep cookies, you can be reasonably secure. Nothing is perfect, but at lest you make yourself a lot more of a difficult target.

Probably not a difficult enough target that the silent black helicopters can't get you if they are really trying to go after you, but difficult enough that you aren't swept up in regular run of the mill surveillance and data exploitation for commercial purposes.
Click to expand...

You are correct that a person can be somewhat secure, but not against the Intel Agencies. I mean think about it, all that phone meta-data and they didn't hack or intercept any of it. They just asked the Providers for it and the providers handed it over. But dire predictions of what the governments of the world will do because of VPN and encryption use are ... I don't really want to be mean,... they are uninformed opinions. And completely unrealistic.

If the government ever reaches a place where they can't do what they think they need to do, they will force a solution, this is absolutely true. This is why I am a proponent of industry working with the government to find reasonable solutions and that industry not take an antagonistic approach. But if this fails and Industry refuses to work with the government the government will come up with their own solutions and force it right down the industry's throats.

Now I can't speak for you guys, but I would much rather have Industry work with the government to come up with something decent then depend on the government to come up with a solution all on their own.
 
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