Does Verizon store a log of your internet browsing history?

TollhouseFrank said:

having worked at a couple ISP's.... one of them as someone with access to practically everything.... your ISP knows everything you do.

It is just up to them as to how much they invest in storage to keep track of your activities as to how much they really store. They know what websites you visited, what proxies or VNC's you are using, and where those are connecting to on the other end.

It is hilarious when a guy who is doing some illegal things online calls in to ask why his service is broken and you get to tell him: "Your TOR client doesn't keep you safe. We know you were trading child porn online and the authorities have been notified. Have a nice day."

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yeah, my friend works for an ISP and he said its funny reading and looking at some of the emails he sees in logs. sometimes with nude pics, child porn, etc...

i'm sure doing that for a cellular company is much more interesting.

gangaskan said:

yeah, my friend works for an ISP and he said its funny reading and looking at some of the emails he sees in logs. sometimes with nude pics, child porn, etc...

i'm sure doing that for a cellular company is much more interesting.

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So you're telling me that any Joe Smoe who works for an ISP can just easily access one's browsing history/emails etc????

That sounds like an invasion of privacy and a lawsuit waiting to happen.

So basically if someone that has a vendetta against someone knows someone who works at their ISP they can use this information against them? (regarding personal relationships/employment etc?)

someone clarify please

that would be right, I play cards , drink and smoke cigars with most of the local cops, they can't keep quiet either.

StevieG55 said:

So you're telling me that any Joe Smoe who works for an ISP can just easily access one's browsing history/emails etc????

That sounds like an invasion of privacy and a lawsuit waiting to happen.

So basically if someone that has a vendetta against someone knows someone who works at their ISP they can use this information against them? (regarding personal relationships/employment etc?)

someone clarify please

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Interesting first post. Welcome.

All isp s have user agreements to allow monitoring of your activity. Not only is it perfectly legal, everyone agrees to it.

Now a random person pulling your stuff without a legal reason is absolutely breaking the law. They can't just give away personal data.

Reminds me of a time I tormented a cd I physically own. It's perfectly legal and I got a letter in the mail saying I was violating the eula and shut off my Internet lol.

bob4933 said:

Reminds me of a time I tormented a cd I physically own. It's perfectly legal and I got a letter in the mail saying I was violating the eula and shut off my Internet lol.

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Serves you right. No cd deserves to be treated in that manner, I'm glad the EULA is looking out for it.

I used to work for a major isp, and yes all traffic is monitored and logged. I had access to tools which showed how much data you had used in a given time. I could see the mac address of your router, etc.

I work for the NSA and lemme tell ya somethin' OP, you got some 'splainin' to do...we'll be by soon so have a Snickers ready because it's gonna take a while.

But how hard would it be for that random person to get caught? Almost impossible right? Correct me if I'm wrong but the cops technically need a warrant to access your data right? My concern is someone with a vendetta against me(not a cop) is using a personal connection with someone in Verizon to access my computer activity. Can anyone who works at an ISP access your activity or is it privileged to supervisors/managers etc?

If I think someone is violating the law against me in this manner what legal steps can I take to stop it? Where would I log my complaint or go to for help?

Thanks

Any joe blow that works for you local ISP isn't going to have direct access to all your facebook messages and nude pics you posted to snapchat. I'm sure there's some hierarchy inside the organization that limits, to a degree, who has access to your personal information. I think that ISPs can (and often do) voluntarily turn over data at request of government agencies without a warrant. It's in their best interest to be on the government's good side, rather than their bad. If an ISP refuses, I'm sure a warrant can easily be produced to obtain it. I doubt that someone that works at an ISP is going to risk their job (not to mention committing a crime, presumably) to help some guy satisfy a grudge against you. If you think someone is violating a law to dig up dirt on you, you're pretty much out of luck for recourse because you'd be indicting yourself for whatever activity you took part in. Even if they did, the information that ISPs store is most likely not very verbose. The log entry probably won't look like: "Stevie went to facebook.com and sent a message to his bookie to place some illegal bets." It'll probably have source and destination IP addresses, timestamps, and a few other things. For more specific details, someone nefarious would probably have to be on the inside of the destination, IE facebook.

All in all, though, it comes down to the fact that literally nothing you do on the internet is protected in every way. You can take some good measures to help protect yourself, but if someone wants the information badly enough, there's likely a way to find it. This isn't limited to just questionable actions, it extends to personal data as well. If you don't want to risk it being exposed, don't put it on the interwebs, period.

Thanks, your reply was very thorough and exactly what I'm looking for. The only thing is I wouldn't be indicting myself on anything because I honestly don't break laws with my computer or do anything remotely illegal. I feel like this person is doing this in more of a "ball busting" fashion just for laughs. Basically trying to mess with my head and make me paranoid by referencing things I look-up and research while I'm browsing. Everything from job searches to movies I download and normal stuff one would google throughout the day.

It's far more likely that this person has infected your PC or gained access to your account than that they're combing through ISP logs.

This was my initial thought but I have McAfee and I also perform routine scans. I also had a McAfee agent remotely go through my system and he said it was clean. One thought I have is about a year ago a very good programer/technician had physical access to my machine for about a week and they installed windows 7(along with a few other programs) and cleared it of some viruses. I found this person through Craigslist and have no reason to believe he wasn't legit but FWIW I did find out after the fact that my Craigslist password/account was compromised by the person/people that my primary concerns lie with(this I know for a FACT). So I'm worried that the said enemy/enemies knew when I posted the ad and had said programmer/technician contact me and install the spyware. I since deleted most of the programs he installed and then acquired the McAfee service. Is it possible if he was really good he could still have something in my system that the scan or McAfee agent did not detect? Any thoughts? suggestions? Thanks

Thanks for the help though.

What about online banking? Can your ISP see all the information being passed to/from a secured banking server? Or is all the data being transferred encrypted? If anything this thread has made me more paranoid.

If you're using a site that requires SSL then all of your traffic will be encrypted. If your bank isn't using SSL, you need to find a new bank.

Right, if you are using HTTP Secure, all information going between the destination and back to you will be encrypted. For instance if an ISP is logging you and they do keep logs, they will see where your IP went and what time it got there. They wont see what happened there. I would seriously question if the ISP really cares where you go or what you download. You pay them to do exactly that. They will have a log of where you went though.

A third party is the one who makes it a big deal. When that happens, the ISP will give them the logging information. If you don't want to make anyone interested, then don't just don't do it.

As for torrents, the problem is while leaching/seeding someone else was in that swarm collecting everyone's IP. That person was getting paid to do that. He then gave your IP to the ISP and said "look what I found and this what he was doing!" That's when people start getting into trouble. Do they see everyone who does this? No, but it could be you next time.

About the ISP having your FB messages and "nude pics from your email" do they really have that kind of in depth information on file? I would highly highly doubt the ISP's snoop that hard on every single customer or if they even do period. Can someone clarify that? I mean if that were the case, authorities would not need your computer. They would just walk up to the ISP and ask for whatever they needed.

So does the N-S-A filter all of an ISP's traffic? Or just selected people? I thought Snowden's revelations suggested the former.

Arbiter Odie said:

Serves you right. No cd deserves to be treated in that manner, I'm glad the EULA is looking out for it.

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hahahahahaha! This tickled me.. Tormented a CD... lol!

The NSA is a different story. They could probably tell me what my BUN and Creatinine are right now, lol. They don't care about you though. Well, I mean, I hope not

I'm pretty sure nobody could befriend someone with clearance at an isp in order to probe another person of interests activity. I knew the head of BT Internet and although they could run background checks on people. They were accountable for logging into there system to run checks. Without a valid reason two things happen #1 it elevates the focus on the person who has been checked. #2 who runs the check without valid reason would put there job in jeopardy.

I used to beg for amusing inside info on celebrities... Which never got divulged. Humph

Interestingly I had my home turned over by the police a few weeks back. They left my phone and computer hardware alone for two reasons. #1 they just didn't want to look and hand my *** to me. #2 I have a request from the home office asking to probe my online activity to tighten laws here (so someone above local law enforcement overrides their intrest in the uk)

Anyhoo I'm in trouble... But hey, could have been a whole lot worse

Fair to say my flag status is elevated to "sneaky git"

Tip. If you do get stormtroopered be polite, remorseful and humble.

#2 I have a request from the home office asking to probe my online activity to tighten laws here (so someone above local law enforcement overrides their intrest in the uk)

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Maybe it is how that is worded, but I don't think I fully understand what you are saying in that sentence.