[Linux-aus] bigpond now uses proxy servers to spy on 'us'

[Rohan M.]

Hi James,

> To be honest unless you can prove the provider has in some way breached
> the Privacy Act through the use (and not just collection - check your
> contract - I think you'll find Bigpond is allowed to collect some
> information as part of service provision) of the data then there is
> little you can do to stop them.
>
My biggest concern would be 1) that this information may be collected
within  Australia's borders, but may be stored and viewed outside of our
borders, where our Federal Privacy Laws have no effect. 2) that this may
be used (exploited) by MPAA or RIAA or some other less than honest company
and Australians may pay for it down the road (one way or the other).

I understand that ISPs can collect 'statistical info' to better improve
their services to customers, some may even sell that information as a list
to others to use. I know this goes on all the time.

If I thought these were just simple proxies to lower data throughput for
Telstra or to increase performance then no worries, but when they seem to
be collecting just for the purposes of knowing exactly what sites you
vist, and what times, etc etc, this is a much bigger invasion of privacy
than giving my name, date of birth, address etc to a company to put me on
their mailing list or cold calling list. (and yes I know i would've agreed
in the fine print to collection of data for marketing or service
improvement etc etc, just dont know about complete detailed reports of
every site I visit and when!)

Kindest regards,

Rohan M.