Internet companies could be forced to track you
        •        Government thinking about data logs
        •        Could track what you do on internet
THE Federal Government is considering forcing internet providers like Telstra and Optus to keep records of what their customers do online.
The records could include people's web browsing history and emails and be held for several years, according to technology website ZDNet.
At the moment a warrant is needed before an internet service provider can begin logging a user's web browsing history.
The Attorney-General's Department said it was considering adopting a data retention scheme similar to one introduced in Europe after the Madrid train bombings.
Under that directive, passed by the European Union in 2006, telephone and internet companies are forced to log details of communications for up to two years.
Only details about the date and time of each phone call, or each time a user connects to the internet, are collected. The content of each communication is not stored.
However industry sources told ZDNet the scheme being considered by the Australian Government would be more far-reaching and could include tracking each website visited by users.

Link here:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/govt-wan ... story-339303785.htm

Hi to all the members. This thread strikes me because I work in the I.T industry related to an ISP. I can tell you as a fact ISP's already cache what we do on the internet . The article is interesting though, but I think this issue is more criminal activity related.

Yes, but what constitutes criminal activity, I read recently that some Japanese Hentai, freely available on the internet, could be construed as child porn and there's always the prospect of being held up to public ridicule and scorn, not to mention blackmail I'm sure if I was a public figure I wouldn't want my browsing history becoming public knowledge.

how long does the ISP keep the browsing history?

I had already read the story Atomic referred to and it may never make it to legislation ... however, it would not be good if it gets up .... too much Big Brother.

big brother is watching you....

How long? Unsure but might have been since the dawn of the Internet age. That said, I know a marketing research company, that has close ties to ISPs around the world, who uses this information to track trends (and not individual activity) on the Internet - what are the hottest trends, etc.

Yep, but what they do with the data legally is a different story. About human rights, freedom of internet usage is the one that prevents the sharing of this info.

There was a time for a while that I would do all of my "nefarious" internet activity by connecting to my neighbor's unsecured wireless connection.  I guess my question would be: How could they prove that the activity was truly mine?  It seems like those who want to get away with something would easily obfuscate the system.

I wouldn't imagine they'd have much trouble connecting it to you. Just the fact that you've been stealing bandwidth means you've been breaking the law and they can legally study your internet activity.

This also opens another concern for those who use these wireless connections. Does this make it that much easier for knowledgeable individuals, quite apart from government organisations to monitor your activity?

As soon as you connect to the internet over your own connection with the same computer you used to connect over your neighbours connection they'll know since they very likely save your mac address...

It is extremely easy to spoof your MAC address.  I never connect to an unsecured wireless connection, or a free public wireless connection for that matter, without adjusting my MAC.

There just seems to be too many ways to hide your identity if you want to.

youre right, spoofing your mac address is not very hard and might give you some extra security.

it always depends on what you are hiding and who you are hiding it from. if you don't want your wife to find out that you watched porn, deleting your browser history will be enough. if you download some illegal movies or mp3s from the internet and dont want to be caught, using your neighbours internet connection with a spoofed mac address will probably work. if you use your neighbours internet connection with a spoofed mac address to hack HSBC then youre fucked

staying perfectly incognito in the internet if someone with a lot of influence or money is trying to find you is not as easy as using someone elses wlan

It's such an interesting world we live in . There could even be a case where the government brings in a new law to cover something on the web (say Hentai) stating that it is illegal, and enabling retrocative prosecutions, so what we are looking at legally today, we could be charged with tomorrow. Especially seeing as governments are so keen to score cheap political points "coming down hard".

What gets me is that when they do catch child molesters and rapists, they let them back out into the community after a couple of years in jail...

[ Last edited by  lister01 at 13-6-2010 11:02 ]

All western style democracies have a long standing tradition of not enacting laws retroactively, quite apart from the fact that they would be struck down in the courts.

No what we need to be careful of is how they decide to interpret the current laws.

That is why We need RA reading access in this Forum!!!

They info is recorded somewhere.  Not clear how long it's retained for. There simply is too much data to chase so unless there is a reason to check something out internet usage being recorded is no big deal. It sort of like phone records like that.