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Tim Cliffe - Blog

The Internet - A Very Disturbing Discovery

01 Target Audience

(01.1) Anyone concerned with their on-line privacy and security. Also, those concerned with their right to browse the internet without being forced to accept the impositions of websites and the demands of data collectors and vendors.

02 Executive Summary

(02.1) What this chance encounter proved was, not only is our internet experience being conveniently customised, it has made a very sinister development. In this case, my internet experience was being dictated and my personal choice was being denied.

03 Structure of This Article

  • (04) Introduction
  • (05) A Very Disturbing Discovery
  • (06) A Very Real Need for Vigilance
  • (07) Summary

04 Introduction

(04.1) Users of the Internet are, quite rightly, increasingly concerned about their on-line privacy and security and to what extent private companies are monitoring and tracking the on-line actions and behaviours of literally billions of people.

 

(04.2) With only vague declarations, as to how such collected data will be used, the user simply selects Accept Cookies and continues with their activities.

 

(04.3) To be fair, some websites provide a link to Manage Cookies, where the user can set their preferences, yet it would appear very few users do.

 

(04.4) Some websites do not provide the user with a choice. At the time of writing, searches conducted via Google cannot proceed unless the user accepts the terms imposed by Google. There is no alternative, other than to use a different Search Engine, which I typically do.

Yet again, it would appear most accept this dictatorial approach without question, after all, Google remains the world's most popular Search Engine.

 

(04.5) Those who use VPNs or Proxy Servers, to protect their on-line privacy and security, are well aware of the disapproval of many websites, which manifests itself in the form of 'We have noticed unusual activity on your account', as soon as one attempts to log-in. This statement is followed with the imposition of various requirements, such as codes sent via text message or e-mail.

Conform or you will be denied access to your account

 

(04.6) Of course, many defend this behaviour with statements such as, 'They are simply protecting my account'. However, an account can easily be protected with a security question or two rather than using a method which, in the case of mobile phones (text messages), immediately gives one's precise location (well, at least to within a few feet).

 

(04.7) If you allow your on-line activities to be tracked, you can enter your user name and password and they will be accepted. However, if you are accessing your account using methods that cannot be tracked, entering your user name and password will not be accepted. So, the question is, What protection?

 

Image of a mobile phone showing google.de.

05 A Very Disturbing Discovery

(05.1) The above points are familiar to many of us; however, quite by chance, I discovered a far more disturbing aspect to this ubiquitous monitoring and tracking of our use of the internet.

 

(05.2) Recently, I was accessing the internet, running a VPN configured, at the time, to exit from a German server and I was also running a Proxy.

 

(05.3) I had received the customary, 'we are not happy we cannot trace you' notifications, and jumped through the variously imposed hoops.

 

(05.4) I entered a URL into my browser, www.google.co.uk/. I was presented with www.google.de/. Remember, .de is the German domain and my VPN was configured to exit from a German server.

 

The image shows a photograph of my mobile phone's browser, which disables the screenshot function, displaying the .co.uk URL but displaying the .de website. The image has only been cropped for width and then scaled. The original image is available here, should you want to check the image is genuine.

 

(05.5) Initially, perhaps like many, I simply thought this rather odd. However, the only way I could access google.co.uk was to switch my VPN to exit from a UK server. I even tried emptying my browser cache, clearing the caches of all my running Apps. and turned off my mobile phone, twice. I still got the same result, this was not an anomaly. It was at this point the very serious implications, of this apparently odd outcome, struck me.

 

(05.6) We have all become very used to having our internet experience conveniently customised to our apparent needs. We do not think twice about how, when we type Google or any other Search Engine into our browser, we get the one in our language, not someone else's language.

 

What this chance encounter proved was, not only is our internet experience being conveniently customised, it has made a very sinister development. In this case, my internet experience was being dictated and my personal choice was being blatantly denied.

06 A Very Real Need for Vigilance

(06.1) What began as my practice to protect my privacy and security on-line, has evolved. It is now also a matter of preventing unaccountable organisations from dictating what I can and cannot do, without me realising it is happening (before my accidental discovery).

 

(06.2) This covert practice of control strikes at the Human Rights of everyone; rights to freedom of access to knowledge, to the truth, the right to free association, freedom from dictatorship.

 

(06.3) These practices, at the very least and based on my experience, appear to be inflicted upon hundreds of millions of Europeans living in countries that consider themselves free and democratic.

07 Summary

(07.1) As some of you will know, much of my career has been spent within the field of education and training. Education, in any form, is an activity concerned with acquiring a knowledge of what is true, what is correct and striving to be the best we can.

 

(07.2) My accidental discovery puts all this in jeopardy, for everyone, in every aspect of our, increasingly, on-line lives.

 

(07.3) I have heard people ask, "How could the German people have been fooled by the Nazis?". The answer is simple. They believed what their government told them and accepted what the state presented to them. The vast majority did not know to what extent they were being manipulated.

 

(07.4) We have believed our accounts are being protected and our experiences personalised and accepted all the presented impositions of websites and the companies operating them. The Internet influences billions of people. If billions do not know to what extent they are being manipulated, what horrors lay ahead?

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