[tor-talk] Tor Weekly News — October 9th, 2013

[Joe Btfsplk]

On 10/11/2013 1:41 PM, mick wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Oct 2013 15:51:24 +0000
> Matt Pagan <matt at pagan.io> allegedly wrote:
>   
>
> Hi Matt
>
> No problem. However, whilst we do have the beginnings of very intrusive
> network censorship in the UK (some ISPs are more pliable than others...
>
> ...you could equally say "change your ISP to one with some balls". UK users should
> stay away from the majors (BT, Virgin, talk-talk, O2, Sky, EE etc) and
> use one of the multiple independents....
>
> If enough UK users vote with their wallets, ISPs may be more inclined
> to grow a pair. ...
Voting w/ your feet / wallet sometimes works, when consumers have choices.
In some locales, there are very few affordable alternatives & ISPs know 
this, when that's the case.

Another unknown or forgotten fact is, these ISPs & communications co's 
get paid BIG bucks for their "research & report preparation time," to 
hand over requested records (logs) of particular individuals.
This is to comply w/ general warrants, nsl's, etc.  The ISP's / mobile 
communications co's even showed how many requests they got / yr & how 
much revenue it generated.

An ordinary co. or citizen with "info they were interested in," wouldn't 
get a dime for gathering & preparing the data to hand over.
In fact, they'd say, "hand it over NOW or we'll throw you in jail & fine 
you."

I've seen actual invoices from several large communications providers.  
They didn't show the targets of requested info, just dates of the 
requests, how much the gov't was billed, etc.

It apparently was public info (or released, somehow).  You can find 
these in general searches.  It was astonishing what they charged for 
such little info.

That may?? be ONE reason (are probably many) that certain "agencies" 
claimed they needed to ignore the constitution & just listen in w/ their 
own equip.
Although, it's hard to believe they'd ever recoup the huge capital 
outlay, for the equip necessary to monitor many millions of users, by 
not having to pay ISPs' - "research & report preparation fees."
But, they're not paying for it (in any country) - the taxpayers are.