Comments on: Rogers ISP and their lack of neutral net

By: TechTools

TechTools — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 00:47:21 +0000

It feels really weird knowing that my ISP has so much power and could control what pages I actually view. Hopefully we could find some change in this and actually find more freedom for the internet.
It’s tough to say if this will ever happen but this example of Rogers and Yahoo on Google is pretty scary when you think about it.

By: The Net’s Runaway Infrastructure | Think Artificial

The Net’s Runaway Infrastructure | Think Artificial — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 01:19:16 +0000

[...] a recent example of some dubious, related developments, Tony at CompSci Canada discusses the exploits of Rogers, one of the main Internet Service Providers in Canada, injecting information into the pages a user [...]

By: Mark Sanborn

Mark Sanborn — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:55:20 +0000

The thought of the internet being controlled by an ISP really irks me. This is not what the internet was founded on and in my opinion drastically slow down its growth and potential.

I also believe that if it becomes heavily controlled there will be a rising need for net citizens to develop their own private internet, similar to the already in place college network AKA, internet2.

By: Ben Hovinga

Ben Hovinga — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:32:18 +0000

This could also be bad with some of the programs that you have on your computer. A program could access a page that will display this account information and send that to a third party company about your account. It could also mess up your programs performance. If you have a program access a specific site that it knows and needs a specific string from a certain line it will not get that string.

By: Tony

Tony — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 04:06:26 +0000

Martin: you’re right, the ISP could definitely record all the content that goes through their routers. Injecting ID-laced links just makes it easier. Injecting JavaScript could also let them know what you’re doing on the page itself — think CrazyEgg.

By: Paul Butler

Paul Butler — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:59:21 +0000

I don’t like the idea of an ISP changing what’s in a packet, it’s just an icky feeling. But on a practical level, this seems like a good idea. I mean, privacy concerns aside (and really, if you don’t trust your ISP to keep your information private, you should probably switch ISPs, because they have access to way more data than this), it might be more convenient to some users than an email or phone call. If the user can turn it off (as it appears), I think the net benefit to the average user is positive. It’s nice to see Rogers being proactive about notifying their customers about their quota use though. I’ve been burned by phone data rates by Rogers wireless, and I sure wish they would have notified me in advance. (Tangent: Instead, they removed the feature from the phone that would have told me how much I had used.)

That said, I avoid Rogers for internet because of the traffic shaping stuff.

By: Paul Butler

Paul Butler — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:39:52 +0000

Martin: Yes, but I think Tony’s point was not that they could record it, but that they are. They record somewhere that you acknowledged the message, which presumably implies that you visited Google at some time. Not the end of the world, but as Tony said, it’s a slippery slope.

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 03:25:01 +0000

Of course they can track you, they’re your ISP. Everything you do goes through their routers. They don’t need to inject anything in the page to do that.