a question for internet experts....


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i heard from somewhere that your service provider has a record of each and every website you have been on... if this is the case how can you prevent them from doing this?

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if you a refering to a "cache" then yes they do. A cache keeps a history of what you visit, so that the next time you visit it it will load up faster. Obviously for this to work their would be some aspect of logging.

If your refering to what a recent cable company in the US was doing- i forget the name (comcast??), then maybe. I think that if they do do it- then your quite within your rights to know- but whether they will confess to it- thats beyond me. They potentially could keep logs of everything- im certain that my company do it - especially when they are having problems with their systems- they are bound to - to see if they can track down the potential problem.

Answer?? Can you stop them loggin? If you want to avoid a cache trying to look at your website- i.e dynamic content, stick a question mark - ? - at the end of your url - e.g.

https://www.neowin.net?

I dont think there is any real way that you can get around that- may be things like "peek - a - boo" will be able to solve that problem. Using a proxy might help- put again your still sending your web data through them- so they can do what they want....

As with everything in life there is a certain degree of trust involved here- i dont think my company would use any of their logs malicously - at least i hope they wouldnt.

hope that answers the question!

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service providers do not look at you cached webpages. they have your request for a web page. and no program can stop them from that valable information. anyone that sells you a program to stop them from doing it is a fruad. a program does not exist

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i mention peek - a - boo - because it can in theory do the impossible- it will route your packets to someone else- i dont really know the exact details- do a search for it. Its been run by cdc- cult of the dead cow (!!!) and they do know what they are doing so - i guess it will work.

again - check it out. i recall there being something on el reg a while back about it - when it was announced they got an exclusive... come to think of it- it was 2nd ever rotw....

www.neowin.net/articles.php

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Some ISPs do such a thing themselves for a recent number of days for legal reasons.

All the major ones also have a government logging system in place. It's called Carnivore and it's quite legal and there is quite nothing you can do about it. In fact, most ISPs don't have access to the Carnivore machines, as they are locked up.

Sorry, if you don't like the privacy thing, but I like my national security :D

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what poppy-**** are you feeding him. simple answer to a simple question.

Q: can they log my web pages

A: yes

Q: can i stop them

A: no

Q:will voodoo or black magic stop it

A:yes, only mystical arts can protect you

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Basic logging levels is to log at the DNS servers, since I presume usually everyone uses the DNS servers of his ISP. Then they can monitor outgoing data on port 80, coz usually outgoing data on HTTP port would be requests.

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you must realize even tho all your visits are most likely logged, do you know what kind of work it would be to check all logs of all users of all days for malicious content?! you have more luck finding a needle in a haystack. so don't worry, no ISP is crazy enough to actually look for very specific info on a certain individual. they've got better things to do. :)

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Originally posted by crookram

...so don't worry, no ISP is crazy enough to actually look for very specific info on a certain individual.

Unless they're asked to... :paranoid:

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true.

but let's look at it from a practical point of view. if an ISP has to store all info about all users of all time, they would need a few terabytes of diskspace just for the storage of logfiles and backups.

i know ISP's are obligated by law to keep logfiles, but in truth i wouldn't be surprised if they don't have any at all. it's too much work and too costly since it will probably be accessed only in rare occasions. like the police requesting the logs of a specific user because they suspect him of owning large amounts of child porn, for example.

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Originally posted by Tom Servo

Basic logging levels is to log at the DNS servers, since I presume usually everyone uses the DNS servers of his ISP. Then they can monitor outgoing data on port 80, coz usually outgoing data on HTTP port would be requests.

That isn't you wife.... right?

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Originally posted by crookram

but let's look at it from a practical point of view. if an ISP has to store all info about all users of all time, they would need a few terabytes of diskspace just for the storage of logfiles and backups.

i know ISP's are obligated by law to keep logfiles, but in truth i wouldn't be surprised if they don't have any at all. it's too much work and too costly since it will probably be accessed only in rare occasions. like the police requesting the logs of a specific user because they suspect him of owning large amounts of child porn, for example.

As I have some knowledge in how an ISP works, let me hit a few points:

It really isn't that expensive or too much work, and a smart ISP (or even a fairly dumb one) does not want to get caught screwing around purposely here. Tape as well as other types of backup can be a pain but not a major cost factor in an Admin dept's budget. And the duties usually fall to those low on the totem.

The amount of requests for radius and other system logs from police, lawyers, courts, etc, is not that rare. The ISP I worked for had a direct membership of around 8-10 thousand, but we were more of a wholesale service and had close to 500,000 unique logins per month (by the time we closed our doors...). At that time we averaged 3-5 *official/legal* requests per week. Percentage-wise it's quite small yes, but not rare.

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