Ok, there are several things on this thread that are simply not true. Comcast, or any other cable provider, is NOT scanning where you go, etc. There’s a simple reason for that… if they were to try to police your browsing, then they would be legally liable if you DID do something illegal, such as sharing copyrighted songs or software. Therefore, ISPs are VERY careful not to look into individual usage. They may track your bandwidth usage, and cut you off if you’ve simply downloaded too much. As far as a popup goes, Comcast requires no software on your computer that would allow them to make a pop-up appear if they were upset with you. That was a scam ad from a website… they’re very common.
As far as someone spying on you… taking “screenshots” of everything you do on your computer would be incredibly assinine. Do you know how large the files would be so that an attacker could actually use what you wrote? That’s just silly. There ARE keyloggers, etc, but most of the time they need to be installed AT the PC. Remote installation is difficult at best.
internet providers are not legally liable. and yes they do know where you go on the internet because if big brother wants to know what you did then they need to look at the records. just like with phone calls. laters pk
who knows. But re-reading the parent, I have one more point. I take screenshots all the time… by hitting the printscreen key. My monitor doesn’t flash. Comparing a monitor to a camera… well, is just silly. Please don’t let yourselves get paranoid over e-machine’s post.
Uh, no, NOT just like phone calls. Depending on the ISP, they do keep certain amounts of information on subscribers… usually their IP address is sufficient. So that if “big brother” wants to know who IP address 192.168.0.10 was at 5:10 PM on April the 1st, they can provide that information. pkdagreek, ISPs have been ruled as non-liable BECAUSE they do not actively monitor internet usage. By monitor I mean that they do not sit there and watch either you or your internet usage history, and attempt to censor your actions. Again, some logs may be kept, but they are generally passive, not detailed, and not ever seen by human eyes. Do you realize how much it would cost to keep track of every little thing you do online?
Btw, do some research into case-law regarding ISP liability. One of the main arguments has always been that the ISP is passive. And in fact, the argument has been made quite a few times that if ISPs were to start censoring or monitoring content, then they WOULD be liable for any “slips.”
Thanks for adding a clue to this thread. Just so you guys know. E-machine is on e-crack. That flashing may be caused by a malfunctioning monitor, a buggy video driver, or even a memory error if it hits the right address range.
Nephorm was also correct about the ISP logging issue. Some of you may recall that the RIAA tried to subpoena an ISP to provide the names of people who were P2P filesharers. One of the reasons that the ISP fought that case was to maintain the lack of liability that a “provider” enjoys. They lost the case but on the premise that the IP address and user info is not protected by the provider immunity. However, the case still remains that no ISP is going to log all of their network traffic. That would not be remotely feasible.
To give an example of infeasibility. I monitored a relatively idle host ( to determine a AFP node addressing problem on Win2k) for 28mins. This resulted in a 1M file. If that person did actually file transfers at a slow DSL linespeed of 128Kb/s I would have had a file of 57.6MB. Multiply that by 183(every other day usage) and you get a little over a terabyte. (that equals a drekload of money when you buy it in high-performance, highly reliable disk). Multiply that by 3 for normal DSL, 4 for fast, and 5-8 for cable.
Granted there would be better ways to log some useful info, like a filter for domainnames only, but that still adds up very fast. (I maintain a similar log for a firewall that is several hundred meg per day… for 7000 or so users… go ahead and scale that to telco size.)
My post was intended to prevent anyone from being tracked by others. I, like others, work in the computer field and have seen many unusual activities that could happen to anyone. Prevention is the key and since this forum in about steroids it is best to take the safe route. Some in here have claimed that what I said can’t be possible, however that is not entirely true. At work we do it randonmly(sp ck?), and therefore, I know it is possible. Since this forum is about steroids, I apologize if this post created any confusion, for my intention was to educate, and help others create a safer environment while on the Web. E-Mac.