Internet Justice Warriors Unite!



  • Ok, so I realize that /. isn't exactly a bastion of high thought. But I present the following as an example of knee-jerk reactions without any actual thought (critical or otherwise) of the measure being taken: Oh Noes, Hotspot on the Internetz!

    ETA: Well, ok, the summary is lifted from the highly poorly written Ars Technica article. But the /. comments are almost worse than the summary.

    Filed under: clearly, none of them ever use Hotel WiFi


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @izzion said:

    Filed under: clearly, none of them ever use Hotel WiFi

    No kidding, right? Or go to McDonald's, or Starbucks, or any other place like that.



  • There's a big difference between a public access point and your own private Internet connection at home. I had this exact redirect happen for me (ISP is Virgin) when I was trying to access a technical documentation page for something. I wouldn't mind, but they already have my mobile phone number, my house phone (which they provide), my email address, and my home address. Surely one of those would have been more suitable to communicate this "feature"? It's not like it was an urgent thing that absolutely couldn't wait a few days.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    I'm with VM and I've not had this, although I made sure the filter was off pretty much straight away.
    Even then I'm pretty sure that I've had something in the post.

    The big ISPs have to get customers to decide, and most customers will just ignore the email or post or whatever.
    It's not a complete hijack, it's just some sites until you make a decision. No biggie.



  • But is it too much to ask them to use a modicum of intelligence? They can clearly profile me from the TV packages I subscribe to, and the obvious childrens channels that I don't watch, and determine that I'm an adult. Why the hell don't they let me be an adult and make my own damn mind up without treating me like an idiot online who needs his hand held whilst browsing the web. If I really want to go and view pictures of unicorns humping cthulu then I will. I shouldn't have to opt in for that, it really should be the filter that's opt-in.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    But is it too much to ask them to use a modicum of intelligence?

    In Telcos, yes.

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    They can clearly profile me from the TV packages I subscribe to, and the obvious childrens channels that I don't watch, and determine that I'm an adult.

    They can - but for the same reason that I have to put a PIN in to watch certain on demand/recorded stuff at certain times of the day despite being the only person in the household - they're not adding this by choice. They've been made to.

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    Why the hell don't they let me be an adult and make my own damn mind up without treating me like an idiot online who needs his hand held whilst browsing the web. If I really want to go and view pictures of unicorns humping cthulu then I will. I shouldn't have to opt in for that, it really should be the filter that's opt-in.

    The filter is opt-in (off by default) for existing customers, opt-out (on by default) for new customers, but all customers have to make an "active choice".



  • @loopback0 said:

    The filter is opt-in (off by default) for existing customers, opt-out (on by default) for new customers, but all customers have to make an "active choice".

    I think Virgin made it opt-in by default, as that was the ticked default option that I saw when my browsing was hijacked.

    @loopback0 said:

    They can - but for the same reason that I have to put a PIN in to watch
    certain on demand/recorded stuff at certain times of the day despite
    being the only person in the household - they're not adding this by choice. They've been made to.

    This irks me more than it should, I'm watching old (Tom Baker old) reruns of Dr Who, what could possibly be not safe for children in that?!


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    I think Virgin made it opt-in by default, as that was the ticked default option that I saw when my browsing was hijacked.

    How it's supposed to work is that for existing customers it's actually off, but when you get get hijacked or go to the settings page the first time, the radio button is defaulted to on which is what makes it an "active choice".


  • Banned

    The basic problem here is this:

    They typically just include a flyer with my monthly bill (which I promptly discard, because I have zero interest in any relationship with my ISP beyond "I give you dollars, you serve up the bits I request").

    + this:

    The move comes as the December deadline imposed by prime minister David Cameron looms, with ISPs struggling to get customers to say yes or no to the controversial adult content blocks

    I can't see any other solution to force consumers who couldn't care less to make the choice, except maybe breaking in to every household in the neighborhood at 4AM and harassing each client to give them an autograph. Otherwise they would have to terminate 99% of contracts, and chaos would emerge.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    Plus, for VM at the very least, a lot of customers will be on paperless billing because that gives them a discount on their bill. So there isn't something physical which drops through their door regularly except for marketing spam and similar things which get discarded pretty sharpish.



  • @Gaska said:

    the controversial adult content blocks

    The fuckwits currently running this country are also interested in this policy, which they inherited from the fuckwits now in Opposition. They're also all about getting ISPs to retain access log metadata for two years.

    I'm seriously considering having my router run everything through a tunnel to Mullvad because fuck that noise. Anybody know what their bandwidth is like these days?


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    Why the hell don't they let me be an adult and make my own damn mind

    That does not seem to be the mindset of modern government, for the most part, is why.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @loopback0 said:

    I'm with VM and I've not had this, although I made sure the filter was off pretty much straight away.

    I'm the one who got this particular bit of "Won't somebody please think of the children" bollocks, and yes - the filter was turned off immediately.

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    They can clearly profile me from the TV packages I subscribe to, and the obvious childrens porn channels that I don't watch,

    ? ;)

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    I'm watching old (Tom Baker old) reruns of Dr Who, what could possibly be not safe for children in that?!

    Careful what you query - they'll be requiring PINs for Bugs Bunny soon:

    http://what.thedailywtf.com/t/x-godzilla-x/5686/5

    Still hate being with Virgin though. Even though they (eventually) stopped their relationship with Phorm - which involved even worse stuff than is being discussed here.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @PJH said:

    Even though they (eventually) stopped their relationship with Phorm - which involved even worse stuff than is being discussed here.

    I'd be a lot less likely to have my broadband from VM if that had been implemented.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @PJH said:

    Still hate being with Virgin though.

    It's better than the majority of what people put up with ADSL connections. I was down at my brother's place recently (I forget who his current provider is, but it's not VM and he's therefore using the BT basic infrastructure) and something that was happening was making for major problems. I don't know what, but connections were being frequently dropped and DNS wouldn't work until the whole wifi link was reset, when it would then work for a random amount of time (10–40 minutes…) The bandwidth was also a lot lower than my home connection, but that's Not A Big Deal.

    OK, I didn't probe what was wrong. I wasn't down there to do tech support. 😉


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @Ashley_Sheridan said:

    But is it too much to ask them to use a modicum of intelligence?

    Dude, we're talking about a law. Intelligence was never involved.


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