[logos7]

In light of recent privacy lawsuits againt AT&T and Verizon, if one is a client with one of them how would one protect their surfing and email from this kind of behavior?

[cwwozniak]

Hope that AT&T and Verizon loose their cases in court or move to an area served by Qwest?

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...enComment=true

Although much of what communications companies did and didn't do at the government's behest in the wake of 9/11 remains classified, it is evident that AT&T and Verizon turned over customer records as part of a domestic surveillance program that lacked proper legal authority. Qwest didn't.

[DoubleHelix]

Web surfing and e-mail has never been a completely private matter. I'm not up on the latest news, but it sounds like status quo.

[BOILED.frogs__]

Originally Posted by DoubleHelix

Web surfing and e-mail has never been a completely private matter.

You can say that again

[logos7]

Due to where I live my options are limited and I am at the mercy of the big guys. Dont live in an area where Qwest is available. Only recourse is to somehow bypass the isp and their recording and storing of ones activity or somehow make web surfing and email untraceable or unreadable. I have briefly researched topics like anonymizer or using secure "tunnels" but as yet not found any data to its effectiveness.
I never did believe the net was safe and our info(email) was secure. The new agreements put out by these companys want you to waiver your right to privacy by actually stating that they will not be responsible for any invasion of privacy by themselves or third parties. This is found under their INDEMNIFICATION section of the new agreement. On the other hand they do mention that it is up to the customer to secure their own transmissions.
This is what I am seeking to accomplish. Any feedback on this would be appreciated.

[DoubleHelix]

What or who do you want to secure your "transmissions" from? Hackers? The government? Your ISP? All web surfing? E-mail? Since e-mail has a recipient, you could secure it on your computer and during transmission, but you'd have no control over it once it was received. So unless you're sending top-secret patented business information, it's not worth it.

There are anonymous surfing services such as Anonymizer that offer some anonymity while surfing, but your connection will certainly be slower, and I'm sure the government has a way to snoop if they want.

I think you're being unnecessarily paranoid. Complete privacy/anonymity is non-existent unless you live off your own land in the middle nowhere. Your social security number, credit card usage, grocery store key coupon usage, banking, etc. is all available for a price. Web surfing is just another area that opens you up. It's part of the deal.

[logos7]

I appreciate any responses. My immediate concern is with the isp, who has indirectly admitted there can be snooping with anyone.
I am looking at this from a position of principle. Considering how the right of privacy is being violated wherever one looks or turns, I dont think it is paranoia to want to protect one of our basic fundamental rights, although I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs.
If you knew the people I know, who span both private and public sectors, you might not have made the previous comment. Make no mistake about it, with emerging technologies and the progression toward knowing what everyone is doing and possibly thinking is not some fantasy or conspiracy. Ten years ago we didnt have all these cameras and if you think I am paranoid you may want to ask some of our fellow human beings in England what they think and feel about their privacy eroding on a daily basis.
Then again, my friend maybe privacy has no value to most people at least until they are violated. The major concern is not necessarily privacy but how human nature can or will use ones private information for potentially negative purposes, or are you one of those individuals who naively believe that everyone is good? I am definitely a supporter of ones rights and also ones right not to care whether they have any or not.
We certainly got off topic, which was if there is any methods or ways to secure ones communications from snoopers especially ISP's of which this thread is titled.

[DoubleHelix]

If programs like Anonymizer don't meet your needs, perhaps they're just not meet-able.

[Elvandil]

There are an increasing number of anonymizers. JAP was one of the best and best-known. It still is widely used despite their late admission recently of having bowed to a German court order and allowed snooping by officials, without any notice to users.

Torpark allows anonymous, portable web-surfing.

But being anonymous on the web does not protect the contents of email accounts or any other web location you may choose to go to. Those are open to hacking and probably always will be.

[lotuseclat79]

Originally Posted by logos7

I appreciate any responses. My immediate concern is with the isp, who has indirectly admitted there can be snooping with anyone.
I am looking at this from a position of principle. Considering how the right of privacy is being violated wherever one looks or turns, I dont think it is paranoia to want to protect one of our basic fundamental rights, although I believe everyone is entitled to their opinions and beliefs.
If you knew the people I know, who span both private and public sectors, you might not have made the previous comment. Make no mistake about it, with emerging technologies and the progression toward knowing what everyone is doing and possibly thinking is not some fantasy or conspiracy. Ten years ago we didnt have all these cameras and if you think I am paranoid you may want to ask some of our fellow human beings in England what they think and feel about their privacy eroding on a daily basis.
Then again, my friend maybe privacy has no value to most people at least until they are violated. The major concern is not necessarily privacy but how human nature can or will use ones private information for potentially negative purposes, or are you one of those individuals who naively believe that everyone is good? I am definitely a supporter of ones rights and also ones right not to care whether they have any or not.
We certainly got off topic, which was if there is any methods or ways to secure ones communications from snoopers especially ISP's of which this thread is titled.

Hi logos7,

The issue of securing any request outbound from your computer involves the use of a tunneling protocol to prevent the ISP from snooping. The use of https instead of http will accomplish this, as will the use of ssh.

Regarding JAP, I would not trust it since the German government requires a backdoor.

The problem is evident with the use of Tor at the exit node if you do not use a tunneling protocol for your transactions over the Internet - primarily with your client/browser.

One way to be secure in this regard is to use the xeroBank Plus Browser service - only $10/month and well worth the price for both security and anonymity. Note: the xeroBank browser was formerly known as TorPark. Tor provides the anonymity and xeroBank provides the security - no logging, etc.

You should upgrade your ISP connection service if it is not high-speed, since any use of Tor onion routing incurs a delay - i.e. with high-speed service the delay will be less severe than say with dial-up which is probably infeasible as far as being able to tolerate the delay is concerned.

-- Tom