Big Brother is now Watching You

[Bribie G]

As from today, ISPs are required to collect all your metadata. Time to get a VPN folks.

The Conversation

 

[Mardoo]

Big Brother must be bored out of his ******* tree.

 

[mtb]

At the end of the day though, it's just metadata. As long as they're not snooping on how many times I refresh AHB because I'm bored out of my scone at work, I don't really care.

 

[barls]

 

[Feldon]

 

[Danscraftbeer]

They cant stop their highest security being hacked by uni students on the other side of the world. They cant even work out the nbn although I cant complain much about that its been pretty good, well not perfect etc and then the faster the internet the more monitoring whatever bandwidth consumption and it all turns to crashing anyhow.
Just what the hell can they do with all that data? and for what?

They've been able to monitor enough for terrorism so what the fark are they looking for in all that overwhelming amount of mostly first world trivial useless ********??? :unsure: Boggling.

 

[Benn]

Dear government internet monitoring sector,
I occasionally visit websites that some prudent folk may deem to contain lewd or lascivious content and I generally prefer to seek preventive natural remedies when it comes to matters of personal health rather than visit the GP.
Apart from that I often daydream about "going off the grid" and living in a somewhat self sufficient home in regards to basic utilities even though I realise you have measures in place to prevent such a scenario.
There, I said it!

...There's that TV repair van parked across the street again,

 

[neal32]

They cant stop their highest security being hacked by uni students on the other side of the world. They cant even work out the nbn although I cant complain much about that its been pretty good, well not perfect etc and then the faster the internet the more monitoring whatever bandwidth consumption and it all turns to crashing anyhow.
Just what the hell can they do with all that data? and for what?

They've been able to monitor enough for terrorism so what the fark are they looking for in all that overwhelming amount of mostly first world trivial useless ********??? :unsure: Boggling.

Hmmm where to start.

This isn't the government implementing this, it's the isps, so don't count on the governments ineptitude.

What it means(probably, I'm not 100% sure but do work in the industry) is that they will legally be able to track and log every site that you goto and as a bonus, have the ability to own all unencrypted traffic. This site being an example as its http. The nsa leaks said the yanks can decrypt some crazy amount of https traffic as well.

I believe it's a massive overreach by the government for something Australians never got a say on. Big brother truly is here.

I'm saddened and can only think it's ignorance that prompts some of the above posts about conspiracy theories and the like. This is a real issue of our privacy that's being eroded and shouldn't be dismissed. The current government can't be trusted on the most mundane of issues let alone the safe keeping of australians collective data.

(Posted from a user using a VPN)

 

[neal32]

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Ironically said by a yank, Benjamin Franklin

 

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

The current government can't be trusted on the most mundane of issues let alone the safe keeping of australians collective data.

This is the part that concerns me the most. We have already seen a good example last year, the governments own census website was hacked!

 

[SBOB]

This is the part that concerns me the most. We have already seen a good example last year, the governments own census website was hacked!

No it wasn't.. It was ddos'd
Massive difference. It's about the equivalent difference of finding $5 on the ground and robbing a bank.

 

[Coalminer]

No it wasn't.. It was ddos'd
Massive difference. It's about the equivalent difference of finding $5 on the ground and robbing a bank.

But if you don't hand that $5 in to the police then it's also theft.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I work for an ISP

the data they collect is only the servers that your connection accesses. Not the content you view, or the device you used

Most of the time they are just content delivery servers so there is little way you can tell what was accesed

And the ISP's have been doing it all along ( how else would they count the data you used ) because you always get people ringing up asking " There was a large download on on Monday of xGb...what was it "

And its never the porn either h34r:

 

[Batz]

Let them watch me all they like, they'll soon get very bored.

Wait!.......they can't read my PM's can they? :huh: :blink:

 

[Danscraftbeer]

This is a real issue of our privacy that's being eroded and shouldn't be dismissed. The current government can't be trusted on the most mundane of issues let alone the safe keeping of australians collective data.

That's the red flag right their. They can't be trusted as in incapable to keep it safe. So its like our data is up for grabs for any real conspirers out there in the world. This country simply isn't savvy enough to do this successfully. That's the general feeling.

Quote: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
Ironically said by a yank, Benjamin Franklin

We didn't have a say in it at all. What is our position/choice here? To take to the streets with protest? They already monitor enough to thwart such things like that too.
Our liberties get whittled away every day with population growth. Civilization is like a big farming project. Forgive the negativity but...

 

[mr_wibble]

There's a lot of information in metadata.
Here's some light reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-24/metadata-what-you-found-will-ockenden/6703626 . EDIT: Ok this is phone meta-data, but it's much the same.

The reason they only want metadata, is because that's all that's needed to know everything about you.

Bribie G says to get a VPN.
This is sage advice.

Always use https (instead of http) if possible.
At least this at least hides a bit more information, for example, consider the search query embedded in the metadata of this search URL:
http://www.google.com.au/search?q=my+arse+is+*******+killing+me.

With https, they only record that you went to google.com (and the time, and from where, etc.)

But I don't have anything to hide?

Well, true, maybe not right now ... but it's not hard to imagine the neo-prohibitionists getting up in guv'mnt.
There's already a bunch of fundamentalists there now, it's just a hop-skip and backroom-deal to ones favouring prohibition. From your current meta-data you'd already be flagged as a person of interest.

Homebrew stores sell distilling equipment!! *MORAL PANIC*
Drunken teenager shouts at bus!!! *YOU'RE NOT SAFE IN THE STREET*
12 Year old's drunk on homebrew!!!! *ThINK OF THE CHILDREN*

Couldn't happen here? It just happened to people in motorcycle clubs/gangs.
Home brewing could easily be banned.


Don't leave a data trail kids.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I would be more worried about what your browser knows more than your ISP

 

[Black Devil Dog]

How do you know if your VPN is actually doing anything, other than slowing your computer down to near 'Dial-up' speed?

I find the one I use so slow, it's frustrating and I usually disable it.

 

[Airgead]

I would be more worried about what your browser knows more than your ISP

I'm doing consulting work for a telco at the moment (won't say which one... But there are only 3 to guess from) and believe me... Your ISP knows everything your browser knows and more. For a start your ISP doesn't have an incognito (also known as porn browsing) mode.

As much as they complain about the government's meta data collection, they already collect much more info than that for their own purposes. And are only too happy to sell that to third parties.

Get a good VPN (the good ones don't slow you down so much)...

 

[Mardoo]

Any recommendations?

 

[Old Bloke]

I have been using Cyberghost for some time, Doesn't slow down what I normally use the net for.

 

[Black Devil Dog]

I'm using ExpressVPN and pay for the privilege. There are free ones available, but my understanding is that you get what you pay for.

The comparison with 'Dial-up was a slight exaggeration, but waiting for emails to download is painfully slow.

 

[user 31093]

How do you know if your VPN is actually doing anything, other than slowing your computer down to near 'Dial-up' speed?

I find the one I use so slow, it's frustrating and I usually disable it.

I have a 50mbs connection, on VPN I get 45mbs on a slow day. I'm in Adelaide closest geographical servers in Melbourne but Sydney and US servers yield good speeds.

 

[scooterism]

Is this Metadata sellable?

If so, maybe the gov don't give 2 ***** about what we look at unless it's fertiliser or kiddy porn and are selling this info?

 

[LiquidGold]

I've Found Private Internet Access pretty good since I've been using them, first and only VPN I've used though. Good to look for one that allows multiple devices so you can put your phone/laptop through it as well. Whichever one you go with its also a good idea to make sure they don't log the data, most state they don't but who really knows anyway.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Honestly

If your not doing dodgy ****, dont be scared

 

[Airgead]

Best recommendation - don't use a free vpn. Some are really dodgy. There are plenty of good paid ones out there that aren't expensive. I think I'm looking at around $70/year for mine.

 

[Leviathan]

Honestly

If your not doing dodgy ****, dont be scared

I'm not a fan of the old nothing to hide nothing to fear mantra, that said I've been using PIA for some time now and don't have web rtc enabled.

 

[Airgead]

I'm not a fan of the old nothing to hide nothing to fear mantra, that said I've been using PIA for some time now and don't have web rtc enabled.

The **** you do may not be dodgy and of interest to the spooks, but it is extremely interesting and extremely valuable to the companies that collect, mine and on sell your data to all sorts of third parties. Who then on sell to other third parties... And so on.

A VPN gives them the big middle finger. Pretty much everyone in the department that handles the big data stuff at work uses a vpn because they know exactly what their data will be used for if they don't.

 

[Toper]

Express VPN,DoNotTrack.