WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:07.359 It's long been true that if you want to participate in modern society, you have 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:11.519 to give up some degree of your privacy. And at this point, I'm not even sure 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:16.240 that moving off the grid to a jungle somewhere and living off the land would 00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:20.960 actually insulate you entirely from the watchful eyes of the powers that be. And 00:00:19.359 --> 00:00:25.119 perhaps there's no better illustration of this than the amount of trust that 00:00:23.279 --> 00:00:29.920 people are expected to place in their internet service provider or ISP. I 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:34.800 mean, just think about how much of your personal data concerning everything from 00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:40.079 your financials to your vacation planning to your love life is flowing 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:44.800 through that tube that goes from your house off to some other mysterious land 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:49.680 of long corridors, closed office doors, and networking equipment that grants you 00:00:46.879 --> 00:00:53.920 access to the internet. So, just how much of this is your ISP really keeping 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:58.320 tabs on? Well, it's probably not that surprising that since the function of an 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:03.199 ISP is to connect you to the websites and services that you want to access, 00:01:01.039 --> 00:01:07.520 they know, at least in a general sense, the IP addresses and the sites that 00:01:05.600 --> 00:01:11.760 you're visiting because DNS requests, which you can learn more about up here, 00:01:09.520 --> 00:01:16.720 are unencrypted. That means that they can see the domains that you're going to 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:24.000 like youtube.com or linesttechtips.com but not necessarily which specific pages 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:27.360 on those domains like gei us/ capital d 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:30.400 lowercase mdk uppercase j lowercase a. 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:33.040 These IP addresses are just one form of 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:37.600 simple trackable metadata, which is a catch-all phrase for information other 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:41.680 than the content itself, with other examples being email addresses, 00:01:39.360 --> 00:01:46.799 timestamps, and port numbers. So, your ISP will know you visited Facebook last 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:50.880 Thursday at 3 p.m., but won't have access to the encrypted data like your 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:55.360 login credentials, who you talked to, and what you said. Now, let's talk about 00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:00.240 unencrypted sites or sending and receiving unencrypted communications. 00:01:57.920 --> 00:02:05.360 When you do this, your ISP can actually see specifics about your activity, 00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:11.760 including the exact content on those web pages or messages. Yikes. They can even 00:02:08.720 --> 00:02:14.239 make educated guesses as to some of what 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:19.040 you're up to on encrypted sites. So for example, looking at individual packet 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:23.280 size, routing patterns and timing, they can piece together details like 00:02:20.879 --> 00:02:27.760 recipient of a message or the length of a password and get a pretty good picture 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:32.959 of what your online life is without relying on elite hackors or the NSA to 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:36.720 break the encryption. So by this point, you might be a little nervous. Even if 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:40.800 you're not some notorious cyber criminal, I think it's fair to say that 00:02:38.480 --> 00:02:45.680 the vast majority of us have done something online that we'd sort of 00:02:42.879 --> 00:02:50.800 rather not share with the rest of the world. But it's not all doom and gloom. 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:54.480 Odds are there isn't someone at your ISP just munching on some popcorn and going 00:02:52.959 --> 00:02:59.680 through your private stream of internet packets. But that doesn't mean that this 00:02:57.040 --> 00:03:04.159 isn't a concern or that they're not just logging all of that information anyways 00:03:01.519 --> 00:03:07.360 for later use. The upsetting thing for a lot of people specifically is the 00:03:05.760 --> 00:03:11.599 potential for ISPs to sell this information to advertisers or other more 00:03:09.680 --> 00:03:15.920 nefarious partners. It's kind of like how Google delivers advertising for 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:19.680 products that they think you might like based on your browsing history, except 00:03:17.760 --> 00:03:24.080 that in the case of an online service, it's often easier to opt out or just 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:28.560 avoid using it compared to literally your internet 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:32.879 connection. There's a good reason to be uncomfortable. Once that information 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:37.200 gets sold, there isn't much telling what some unscrupulous advertiser would do 00:03:35.200 --> 00:03:41.760 with it. Even if they aren't selling it directly to email spammers, there's no 00:03:39.920 --> 00:03:47.200 guarantee that your information will remain out of the hands of malcontents. 00:03:45.360 --> 00:03:51.440 Look at how many major data breaches are in the news these days. It happens all 00:03:48.879 --> 00:03:55.680 the time. However, there is a bit of good news for those that are concerned 00:03:53.519 --> 00:03:59.760 about privacy. More and more websites, especially large popular ones, are 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:04.480 encrypting connections by default thanks to services like Let's Encrypt. And 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:09.200 additionally, ISPs don't save this dirt they have on you forever. Most of them 00:04:06.799 --> 00:04:14.640 keep it for about 2 years at most. That's not to say that they don't just 00:04:10.720 --> 00:04:16.560 sell it every two years, but either way, 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:21.040 there might not be a complete picture of your digital life forever available at 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:25.600 any individual point in time. And you might also be using multiple ISPs which 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:30.320 is becoming common as many people even unintentionally in most cases use one 00:04:27.840 --> 00:04:34.639 provider at home, another at work and a third for cellular data and so on. And 00:04:32.880 --> 00:04:38.720 beyond that, if you do want to get super serious about privacy and limit what 00:04:36.479 --> 00:04:44.639 your ISP knows about you, using a reputable VPN service with good security 00:04:41.280 --> 00:04:47.280 that doesn't log user activity can help 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:52.080 a lot. A VPN creates a secure tunnel between your device and whatever you're 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:55.680 connecting to. And some of them even secure your DNS requests, meaning that 00:04:54.160 --> 00:05:00.080 theoretically your ISP could end up knowing virtually nothing about your 00:04:57.520 --> 00:05:05.120 online life, which is awesome. Just make sure the VPN service is one that you can 00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:08.639 trust because all the same metadata will be flowing through them and they could 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:12.880 theoretically just be exactly as malicious with it. So, that would be 00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:17.680 bad. But why do they have to keep track of this information at all? Can't they 00:05:15.039 --> 00:05:22.639 just leave us alone? Well, believe it or not, ISPs aren't just tracking you to 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:25.680 make a quick buck. Identifying patterns and user behavior helps them with 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:30.479 traffic management to make your connection run more quickly and reliably 00:05:28.400 --> 00:05:36.080 and also helps them protect users from cyber attacks and malware. So, it's not 00:05:32.960 --> 00:05:38.960 like there's no benefit to this user 00:05:36.080 --> 00:05:43.120 data collection. But even so, no one would blame you if you develop trust 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:48.039 issues like me in this brave new world of exploding phones and fake dating 00:05:45.479 --> 00:05:52.560 profiles. It's good to be safe out there. 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