Want to know who really monitors your internet activity?

reply to post by bsbray11


Hey, Great post and screen shot.
Remember guys, I know we are all conspiracists however, do keep in mind that when you use Firewalls, Loggers, and programs such as PeerGuardian and you start see all these address trying to connect to you that it could be a MULTITUDE of things, a few them of are:

• Internet Worms
  
• Trojans
  
• Virus's
  
• Scanners
  
• Hackers using scanners from compromised hosts
  

So just remember that just because you see Harvard University trying to connect to your computer doesn't mean that the CIA has COINTEL agents working for Harvard.
More often then not, its some college web surfer who is at Harvard that has a trojan installed that is randomly scanning the internet for vulnerable hosts (and you happen to be a part of that scan.)
I am well educated and versed in network security (I am A+, Network+ and Security+ certified) so if anyone has questions on how they can improve their anonymity or security on the internet, please send me a PM and I will be happy to help.

reply to post by davespanners


Just a quick note that "Measuring Intent" may just be an attempt to determine the likelihood someone will buy something, subscribe, sign up, etc. Individuals who already know specifically what they are looking for are more likely to use more keywords in a search and again specific keywords may be associated with an intention - like "subscriptions", "newsletter", etc. That's not to say that it can't be used for other purposes.

Originally posted by porschedrifter
I got news for all of you. Every email, instant message, web page you send/go to is recorded and can be filtered indefinitely to just one single key word. Data is archived for 10 years and then refreshed constantly.

There is no where to hide online anymore, no virus protector, firewall and even soon to be proxy can hide you. This is happening at the ISP level, there is no way to hide.

How do I know? Because I've used and seen the "black boxes" that are being made for ISP's, Gov, anyone to accomplish this.

It's real, it's here and it's being used as we speak.

edit on 10-4-2011 by porschedrifter because: (no reason given)

As far as I understand, thats all well and good for unencrypted connections, but if you use any type of SSL proxy you should be good to go. Unless you care to elaborate?

reply to post by DarthPhobos

Apologies, I was a tad too vague with that disclaimer. I just added it in case someone has an ancient router.

Worst Case:

Your IP is released but will not renew. This is very uncommon, though not impossible. Only likely to happen if the user is on an office/work network which has specific configured IP Addresses & Gateways.
E.g. Samsung HQ Office etc...

If your IP will not renew when using a router at home, simply switch it off & on. Your ISP will then automatically renew it.

Best Case

You have no problems.

I would recommend using CCleaner alongside an IP Renewal. Just so it’s a completely fresh start!

Originally posted by Silver Star
Well I doubt that it would be good business sense for an internet advertisement agency to make a nuisance of itself so I'm sure they're all perfectly harmless.

I can, however, understand how people would object in principle so here is the website of the governing body which polices these companies. You are given the option to opt out of their tracking hi-jinks....

www.networkadvertising.org...

I sincerely hope this isn't a flagrant breach of ATS's terms and conditions. Opting out still means that you get adverts - just not ones that are tailored specifically to your internet habits.

From that same sits FAQ Section -

7. What are Web beacons?
Generally, a Web beacon consists of a small string of software code that represents a graphic image request on a Web page or email. There may or may not be a visible graphic image associated with the Web beacon and often the image is designed to blend into the background of a Web page or email. Web beacons can be used for many purposes - including site traffic reporting, unique visitor counts, advertising auditing and reporting, and personalization. A significant majority of Web beacons collect only anonymous data. However, some may be used to collect PII, particularly in the case of email that contains a Web beacon. In such cases, the data collected through the Web beacon may be linked to the recipient's email address or other information identifying the recipient.

Scary stuff!!! So those "Web Beacons" CAN be sent in email and they WILL track your Personal Info if you follow the links in emails. Best to block all SPAM and email Adverts in general all the time.

Why would you use a Google product if you wanted any guarantee of privacy?...

Get another browser and reference this thread for removing Flash cookies:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Thanks for the headsup on the different companies! Google Analytics is another possible avenue.

Google Analytics

Originally posted by Novatrino
reply to post by davespanners

 

Echelon records all of this data. Its a global network of super computers all around the globe to gather and store information from all network locations all the time. It is a self learning computer system as well. Thats all I can really say about it :|

peace,
Novatrino

I've heard, but not tried, that one way to test Echolon is to compose 2 innocent emails and send them to yourself a few seconds apart and they should arrive a few seconds apart in order. then add a lot of keywords to one, Bomb, Al Qaeda etc then send that first and the innocent one a few seconds later and the innocent one arrives first as that isn't being scanned as much.

what do you suppose happens when one inspects the element of a object and deletes the code for such ads? i usually just do that if im on a page longer than 10 seconds. all ads gone, just the pure webpage.

I've always known I was being monitored on the web. Once I switched on my computer and went somewhere to do something. When i came back, I could hear typing, it would stop for a second or two, then start again. Like two people having a conversation. But with all their monitoring, what exactly they gona do to me? They will not and cannot force me to buy any crap of the internet, I wont give them any money, so monitor all you like i say, its more a waste of their time than a fear i am going to have grow over me.

Even if they do monitor your internet activity that doesn't mean anything.Anybody could be using the computer how are you suppose to keep track of who exactly was using the computer?Then you have people who can change their IP.Then you have the hackers.Good luck trying to pinpoint who exactly does what online.

Originally posted by GodIsPissed
Even if they do monitor your internet activity that doesn't mean anything.Anybody could be using the computer how are you suppose to keep track of who exactly was using the computer?Then you have people who can change their IP.Then you have the hackers.Good luck trying to pinpoint who exactly does what online.

Unless the user logs onto a personal account, Email, Facebook, ATS.

If you monitored a house of three people using the same computer, you could figure out who is who by their search habits.

Also computers with multiple user accounts.

How funny that this is posted on ATS, where Ghostery in my browser (Seamonkey, similar to Firefox) detects about 12 damn trackers... and some very invasive ones!

You forget another company tracks too...your internet provider.

Bell is an internet provider.Bell also makes weapons.Do a search on Bell and see.

reply to post by davespanners


Whether you're using someone elses wi-fi or not, it does not matter. But, the liability would be temporarily stalled on them, if you were to do something crazy. The trackers are tracking YOUR computer (IP address) NOT the router. YES! GHOSTERY DOES BLOCK THEM, SIMPLE ADD ON WITH FIREFOX. I SUGGEST TACO W/ALBINE AND BETTER PRIVACY ALSO. This is the least you could do. If it makes you feel better, you could also change your IP address from time to time, look it up, easy.

Originally posted by porschedrifter
How do I know? Because I've used and seen the "black boxes" that are being made for ISP's, Gov, anyone to accomplish this.

Please describe how they are connected in order to log these packets. For example, please explain how they hook into the hardware routing engines present in routers such as this one: www.backbone-news.com...

It would be very useful to me to know how this was done, as I often work with ISP or transit networks.

reply to post by Echtelion


Want to post what they are and where on they site they appear? I wonder if it will make another mod try and lie about what is on the site

Ha! That makes me feel a lot less paranoid for deleting all temp data and getting a new IP every day.

I always instantly delete all cookies and stuff after visiting Facebook!

... it's like washing hands! Get rid of the bacteria or they will end up in your mouth!

Originally posted by zeeon

Originally posted by porschedrifter
I got news for all of you. Every email, instant message, web page you send/go to is recorded and can be filtered indefinitely to just one single key word. Data is archived for 10 years and then refreshed constantly.

There is no where to hide online anymore, no virus protector, firewall and even soon to be proxy can hide you. This is happening at the ISP level, there is no way to hide.

How do I know? Because I've used and seen the "black boxes" that are being made for ISP's, Gov, anyone to accomplish this.

It's real, it's here and it's being used as we speak.

edit on 10-4-2011 by porschedrifter because: (no reason given)

While it's a good idea to use encrypted connections when surfing the web, using

As far as I understand, thats all well and good for unencrypted connections, but if you use any type of SSL proxy you should be good to go. Unless you care to elaborate?

While it's a good idea to use encrypted connections when surfing the web, using SSL won't prevent web beacons from working, however. SSL will only encrypt the connection used to fetch the pixel in this case.

There's another way to prevent trackers from dealing with you: add entries to the hosts.txt file that is on every machine that has the stacks to connect to the internet.
On a Mac, one can use a piece of freeware, called Gask Mask. I don't know if there's something for the wintendo platform, but it would surprise me if there weren't any.
So, what should you do?
First fetch a list of known trackers (a lot of good tips were given in previous replies)
add the IP addresses of each of them and put an IP number in front of it.
save the file
restart
ready.

So, for example, you want to block "www.thesiteyouwanttoblock.com"
add this line to the hosts.txt file:

127.0.0.1 www.thesiteyouwanttoblock.com

from now on, whenever a link is activated to that address, the computer will stop it from loading as you just told your computer that website is running on.... your own machine.

Surprised Facebook wasn't in the original post. They are probably one of the biggest culprits

reply to post by davespanners


Would blocking third party cookies not stop a lot of this? Not hard to do, in browser settings. I would think that would take care of most of this sort of thing.