2024-03-28 16:54 UTC (Access Key = T)
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2024-02-20
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?
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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Resources
eLearning:
- 3D Printer Developments by 3D Printing Industry
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Augmented Reality from Tobias Kammann
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Browser Statistics by w3schools.
Browser Type, Operating System, Screen Resolutions
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Cambridge Dictionary The Cambridge Dictionary - leading authority on the English Language - Dictionary and Thesaurus - Free to use
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - eLearning Feeds by eLearning Feeds. Ranked and scored e-learning blogs
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Global Statistics (on-line) by ITU - Includes Stats for the Web and Mobile
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Multi-media Software SourceForce - Open Source software (free) development and distribution community
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Punctuation Guide by the renowned Professor Larry Trask
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Referencing:
- Typography by Typekit Practice
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Virtual Reality Blog by Enter VR
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Web Usability by Nielson Norman Group
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
Security:
- Anonymous Browsing:
- Computer by The Tor Project
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Mobile by The Guardian Project
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - User-Agent String Confirm what information your browser is giving away about itself, your operating system and computer
(External link, opens in a new tab/window);
- Computer by The Tor Project
- Computer Security from Graham Cluley
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Email Encryption by GnuPG, for various Operating Systems
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Publicised Location Confirm your VPN/Proxy settings; where the Internet thinks you are
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Random No. Generator Create random passwords, convert numbers to letters, e.g., 5 = E
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - UK NCSC Advice and guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - On-line Privacy by The Tin Hat. Articles and Tutorials
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - VPN Reviews by TechRadar
The latest reviews of VPNs
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
- GCA Toolkit Access the UK Police ActionFraud website
Protect small/medium sized business from cyber attacks
(External link, opens in a new tab/window); - Quad9 and DMARC Access the UK Police ActionFraud website
Protect your system and e-mail
(External link, opens in a new tab/window).
Guarding against disinformation and the re-writing of history.
Web Archive Access the Internet Archive Wayback Machine website(External link, opens in a new tab/window)