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by rishabhd 3050 days ago
well, who isn't? Even at the most basic level, my local ISP is injecting ads into browsers.
2 comments

The original title before the admins changed it was "Your ISP is Probably Spying On You", and you wrote:

> well, who isn't?

I can understand that we all get weary from the constant news of yet another privacy intrusion, surveillance method being discovered, or new government law eroding privacy. But why be dismissive? When Snowden revealed what he knew, it confirmed what I had already suspected. But I didn't go and say, "well of course, we all knew that we were being illegally spied on us". I thought that getting the specific information was very important.

As far as I can tell we should just be safety first. This does indeed mean getting as much information about how to browse privately.

If we all use tor, it will help the tor project because then it's harder to spot individuals using it.

Tor is slightly slower, but it's pretty much a perfect browser replacement. The only reason I don't use it all the time is that I like my browser history. Plus I've got a self built VPN which is about as good as I can hope for.

My apologies, I did read the article and then commented. The author is obviously privacy focused and is writing for a similar audience. Unfortunately, here in India, things are quite different as there are very few legal measures to protect privacy and there is a general lack of awareness regarding why digital privacy actually matters. Things are so bad at some places that even local ISPs (even with no BGP AS) are able to collect data, and sell it to markets in gaffar for as low as 2 USD (for instance a list of 25K users with their browsing habits). A small, cottage industry of data mining and selling operates with zero implications and even the cops can't do anything about it as they are brutally unaware about the privacy laws and shrug it off. I have my own VPN setup (openVPN to tinc mesh over scaleway/hetzner) for my general surfing and have configured it for my whole family through a raspberry pi as well. But again, the when the smallest of enterprises can operate with zero ramifications for mining, there is little you can do en masse without the backings of an informed government.
That is so fucked up. That isn't the case at all over here. Why do people accept it, a monopoly in their area?
Unfortunately people are simply unaware about their rights in general regarding privacy and the locals laws are not stringent. They are not even aware that their data is being collected, and even if they knew, they can do little about it. Privacy focused users create their own infrastructure or get VPN, rest all contribute to a small cottage industry of data collection, analysis and selling unknowingly.