There is a good case to be made for refusing to do business with your ISP for privacy concerns…
If your ISP has presented you with some terms of use agreement, stating that they have the right to do anything with any information they can gather from your use of their product, there is good logic in voting with your feet.
The problem I see is if the ball gets rolling and consumers say nothing then in the future you will not be able to find an ISP who does not keep logs on everything you do, then sell the results to the highest bidders. Only industry regulation could stop the practice after that, and with the industry lobbying situation what it is I do not see a chance of that any time soon…
July 12th, 2006
I suspect the rest of the providers are watching with interest to see if any legal challenges crop up that make it more trouble than it is worth. If none arises, we can expect the rest to follow suit. AT&T sure makes encryption look attractive. As for browsing, it sounds as if the carefree days of not concerning yourself with the trail you leave as you browse are over. From what I’ve seen perusing clients’ machines over the years, most of them have been places they’d rather no one else know. As for myself, ADSL has been performing poorly for quite a while, not getting anywhere near the speed I’ve purchased. If the sale of Bellsouth to AT&T is given approval, it will probably drive me into the arms of one of their competitors.
July 12th, 2006
That’s too bad, I’m getting way over the speed that I pay for on BellSouth ADSL.
Have you done internal troubleshooting?
July 13th, 2006
I have done some internal troubleshooting and had others who are more skilled do so remotely. We haven’t been able to find anything that can be labeled as culprit. I am open to suggestions.