Monitoring Internet behaviour
Introduction
Your Internet habits can be scrutinised! You should always assume that someone somewhere has a log of the websites you visit and the things you search for. We will discuss this in a little more detail in this section.
Use of Cookies and beacons
A cookie is a text file deposited onto your computer by a website that you have been to. When you next visit the website, the cookie detects that you have been there before and can display content based on what has been accessed previously or can retrieve information entered last time, such as personal details or account details. Cookies can often speed up your Internet experience. Beacons track how you navigate through a web page or web site. Cookies and beacons are not a threat to your computer as such in the way that a virus is but many people block them on their computer because they don’t like the idea that information is being collected about their surfing habits and potentially, being sent back to the websites that they visit. Websites now have to legally ask your permission to put a cookie on your computer if the company is registered in the EU but this can't be enforced in other parts of the world.
Flash cookies
These are also known at "locally shared objects" and store information related to Adobe Flash, such as video volume preferences. The problem with Flash cookies is that they can't be removed or blocked in the same way as cookies. Some comapnies have used this to add a cookie to a Flash cookie, so if the cookie is deleted, it gets reloaded again by the Flash cookie.
Google Analytics
The website theteacher.info makes use of Google Analytics Pro and a number of other analysis websites to better understand how the website is used by visitors. Many websites use these tools and basic accounts for Google Analytics are free to set up for any website. This kind of software gives a business a very detailed summary of, for example, the browsers that were used to visit a website, the operating systems that were used, the countries and the towns and cities that people accessed a website from, how many visits were made and when and so on. It does not report an individual's details, only summaries. Google Analytics Pro and our other software will not collect or store personal information although they may ask you to accept a cookie to help them analysis how a website is used. You can read a copy of Google's Privacy Policy, for example by visiting this website: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
Search engines, Facebook and other social media websites
You may have an account with sites like Google, Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, Instagram and so on. You didn't pay to use these, so how can they employ so many people, are worth billions and give you your own account, storing all your files in the cloud, searching for things when you want to find something out, storing blogs, photos, videos, music, emails and other stuff? The answer is because of advertising revenue. They get their income by charging companies to display adverts on your pages.
If you are a company that manufactures and sells guitars, for example, you will pay to have a social media company display your advert on someone's page and will pay more if that person clicks on it and goes to your website. The problem, of course, is that not everyone plays guitar and you really only want to display the adverts to people who play guitar because it's a waste of money if they aren't interested in the first place. Have you ever noticed that many of the adverts you see on your own pages are often of some interest to you? This is because social media websites track the content of your pages and deliver only adverts it thinks you will be interested in. They track your contacts, the things you buy, the posts you make, the photos you took, where you took them, any time you 'Liked' a post, any time you gave to a charity and so on and in some cases, your web browsing habits will be tracked after you have left the social media site! You can only really understand what data is being collected about you by reading a company's data policy (as opposed to its Privacy Settings).
What information do you think Facebook is collecting about you? Once you've had a think about this, Google 'Facebook's Data Policy' for the answer, or click here to go straight to it. It might just surprise you how busy they are! A lot of people are concerned about this. Information can be mislaid or hacked or misused and there are plenty of news reports on the internet to support these concerns.
Tracking software
Many organisations including most schools and businesses have strict policies on how their network resources, which include the local network, computers, all software, printers, email programs and Internet access can be used. Hardware and software costs money to set up and run. Schools and businesses have reputations to protect and are also responsible for what their networks are used for. They certainly don't want it used for anything that is illegal, unethical, immoral or for something that slows the network down, such as downloading huge numbers of video or music files.
Someone who wishes to or needs to be an authorised user with a login and a password on an organisation's network will first have to sign an Acceptable Use Agreement, that essentially asks them to promise to use the network for work-related activities only, and spelling out the consequences of breaking the agreement. It also usually clearly informs them that the school or company has monitoring software that tracks and logs all activities on all equipment owned by the organisation, including phones, tablets, laptops and desktop computers. You therefore have no excuse if you decide to break this agreement and are punished as a result.
Internet Service Provider (ISP) logs
To get access to the Internet, you have to pay a subscription to a company known as an ISP. BT, Sky, Virgin Media, TalkTalk and PlusNet are all examples of ISPs. Each time you visit a website, they have the potential to log that, along with the time and date and what pages you looked at. Each company has its own policy on logging visits, which you will be able to search online for. Some sections of the UK Government are very keen to get ISPs to log all details for periods of time to help in the fight against crime and terrorism. Others think that this is a step too far for a democratic society and are concerned about what happens if the data falls into the wrong hands. Whatever the current state of affairs is regarding logs, it is always worth understanding what data is kept by your ISP by finding out and reading it.
Keeping your Internet behaviour private
There are a number of things you can do if you are concerned about privacy and security. The first thing is to never do anything illegal, unethical, immoral or controversial - and then you have nothing to worry about! You could hide your presence on the Internet by using a proxy server or a Virtual Private Network (VPN). There are free ones but a paid-for service usually costs just a few pounds a month and provides you with more security features. Do a search for VPN. Try 'proxy server'. When you go online, all of your activities will be strongly encrypted after you have set up an account and downloaded a small piece of 'client' software onto your computer. When you request a website, that request will then be encrypted and the results returned to you will be encrypted. On top of that, who you are (your IP address) will be stripped out of all requests so that you can't in theory be traced. If there is a security breach at the proxy server or VPN company, however, then it certainly would be possible.