Monitoring Your Internet Usage
Colleen McPartlin
In this high-tech day and age how do authorities track down people who frequent illegal Web sites, and does it mean big brother is watching us all through our computers?
Ever notice how when you open up your e-mail account, there are advertisements that directly relate to whatever Web sites you were just looking at? Well, that's just a fraction of what different agencies can monitor on your computer.
Unless you're looking up something illegal, that's about as far as it'll go.
Federal and state agencies have the capabilities to pretty much monitor anything you look up through information provided by your Internet Service Provider, but that your ISP isn't the one tracking your whereabouts.
Chet Strebe, a team leader for informational systems and structural technology for Northcentral Technical College, says, "I think in most cases your Internet Service Provider doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to what you are surfing and what you are doing."
Strebe says those agencies are usually monitoring a Web site, and if they find the content on that site to be criminal, then they'll request records from the ISP, but he also says that you shouldn't worry that your ISP is handing out your personal information.
He says, "People should also be aware that most ISPs do a really good job of protecting that data, and they don't hand it out freely."
Yeah Right!
The USA PATRIOT Act permits the government to monitor Internet traffic and e-mail communications on any Internet service provider without probable cause by obtaining detailed “routing” information like a web address. While this provision is supposedly aimed at lawbreakers, it sweeps broadly because e-mails and Internet traffic information of innocent individuals cannot be separated from the activity of targeted individuals. (Section 216U.S. Patiot Act)
He says if you have any questions regarding the information they'll give out, you can find it on their privacy statement on their Web site, and you shouldn't worry if one of those illegal Web sites were to pop-up for a second on your computer because the government agencies also have a way of tracking that.
He says, "They can also look at the duration of time spent on sites and they can look at the frequency."
One thing Strebe did emphasize is that even if the individual isn't getting monitored, the government watch team is trying to crack down on all child pornography Web sites, so there's a very high chance of getting caught if you are going on these sites.
Colleen McPartlin
In this high-tech day and age how do authorities track down people who frequent illegal Web sites, and does it mean big brother is watching us all through our computers?
Ever notice how when you open up your e-mail account, there are advertisements that directly relate to whatever Web sites you were just looking at? Well, that's just a fraction of what different agencies can monitor on your computer.
Unless you're looking up something illegal, that's about as far as it'll go.
Federal and state agencies have the capabilities to pretty much monitor anything you look up through information provided by your Internet Service Provider, but that your ISP isn't the one tracking your whereabouts.
Chet Strebe, a team leader for informational systems and structural technology for Northcentral Technical College, says, "I think in most cases your Internet Service Provider doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to what you are surfing and what you are doing."
Strebe says those agencies are usually monitoring a Web site, and if they find the content on that site to be criminal, then they'll request records from the ISP, but he also says that you shouldn't worry that your ISP is handing out your personal information.
He says, "People should also be aware that most ISPs do a really good job of protecting that data, and they don't hand it out freely."
Yeah Right!
The USA PATRIOT Act permits the government to monitor Internet traffic and e-mail communications on any Internet service provider without probable cause by obtaining detailed “routing” information like a web address. While this provision is supposedly aimed at lawbreakers, it sweeps broadly because e-mails and Internet traffic information of innocent individuals cannot be separated from the activity of targeted individuals. (Section 216U.S. Patiot Act)
He says if you have any questions regarding the information they'll give out, you can find it on their privacy statement on their Web site, and you shouldn't worry if one of those illegal Web sites were to pop-up for a second on your computer because the government agencies also have a way of tracking that.
He says, "They can also look at the duration of time spent on sites and they can look at the frequency."
One thing Strebe did emphasize is that even if the individual isn't getting monitored, the government watch team is trying to crack down on all child pornography Web sites, so there's a very high chance of getting caught if you are going on these sites.