5 ms·

Much, much more frightening than website blocking in Australia is this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/telco-industry-pushes-for-metadata-collection-cha

by gravelc 10y ago

Much, much more frightening than website blocking in Australia is this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/telco-industry-pushes-for-metadata-collection-changes/8162896 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-05/telco-industry-pushes-... Our esteemed government told us universal metadata collection was for fighting terrorism. Then, over the Christmas period when the public is disconnected from politics, a sham enquiry was held to open up metadata to civil courts (i.e. for copyright, divorce cases etc). Needs a bit more than router DNS changes to protect one's self from this. VPN at a minimum. Given our already rubbish speeds, it's really annoying to cop a further speed and latency hit from a VPN (along with the $$$ it costs).

Untit1ed 10y ago
Not to mention that some sites will block you if using a VPN :(.
- lsh 10y ago
  And that Cloudfront appears to hate and block those using VPN services.
  - rqebmm 10y ago
    Full Disclosure: I work for a private VPN company This depends on the VPN provider. Private VPN services share IPs between customers, and the extra layer of privacy they provide comes with high potential for abuse. Some providers care more about preventing fraud than others. Cloudfront is likely just blocking IPs that have behaved poorly in the past, so I'd suggest you look for more reputable VPN providers that actively weed out fraudulent users.
    - redblacktree 10y ago
      Could you provide some more advice (or links to advice) on this? I'd like to set up whole-house, always-on VPN, but I'm concerned about service quality issues, specifically blocking. (i.e. the wife will make me take it down if it adversely impacts her ability to watch Netflix or inconveniences her in any other way)
      - rqebmm 10y ago
        Sure! Our company has been working on a "whole-house, always-on" product for a while, but it hasn't taken off because of the difficulties involved with having users flash Tomato onto their routers. I'm guessing HN readers are a bit more comfortable with that :). https://www.goldenfrog.com/vyprvpn/vpn-router https://www.goldenfrog.com/vyprvpn/vpn-router
  - LeifCarrotson 10y ago
    Cloudfront doesn't hate VPNs. Cloudfront customers hate the users who use automated tools to perform click fraud, post fake comments and reviews, send spam, attempt vulnerability scanning, and try to brute-force logins. These malicious users overwhelmingly use VPNs, Tor, and botnets to perform these actions; few use their own connections. Legitimate users overwhelmingly do not use VPNs or Tor. Do you see what's about to happen? Cloudflare customers want their CDN to block these malicious actors, and Cloudflare can easily identify Tor and VPN providers. Cloudflare adds a captcha, which is intensely annoying to legitimate users, but debilitating to automated users. The vast majority of users are unaffected, and customers are happy, but the few legitimate people using Tor and VPNs conclude that Cloudflare hates them.
mmjaa 10y ago
Australians simply don't care about this shit. They've lived in an industrialised colony, with all its rewards, for too long - as long as they're still able to live the good life, who cares what the government gets up to .. Its a shame, because Australia has, in many ways, a culture that could produce great things. But its still ham-strung by its dependence on colonialist thinking in the halls of power.
- vacri 10y ago
  What do you mean by 'colonialist thinking'?
  - watbe 10y ago
    Only a guess, but I think it means "the government knows what is best for its citizens".
    - ue_ 10y ago
      That is hardly unique to Australia. Britain, Canada, NZ all have no problem at all with censorship, so much that they will even censor fiction. These countries, one of whuch I am a citizen of, have not a single strand of libertarianism in government nor populace, and it's a shame.
      - vacri 10y ago
        Yeah, how shameful. Aus/Can/NZ routinely top quality-of-life measures along with the nordic countries. Libertarianism is codified selfishness, and it's not conducive to healthy societies.
        ue_ 10y ago
        With regard to libertarian capitalism, I agree with your selfishness analysis. I wasn't referring to that, though, I was more referring to certain rights and freedoms guaranteed for example by the US constitution, and the lack of them in the countries I mentioned. Please see my reply to wycx.
Veratyr 10y ago
Note that the data retention changes that were enacted are mainly applicable to services provided by an ISP itself, such as phone, SMS and email. They explicitly don't cover IP traffic. You can read the text of the amendment here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00039 https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00039. 187A subsection 4 is pretty clear. It's certainly worse than not having it but it's nothing like NSA level snooping.
LordKano 10y ago
Civil and mundane criminal uses were the goal from the beginning. "Terrorism" was just the tool they used to sell the masses on the idea.

by gravelc 10y ago

Untit1ed 10y ago

Not to mention that some sites will block you if using a VPN :(.

lsh 10y ago
And that Cloudfront appears to hate and block those using VPN services.
- rqebmm 10y ago
  Full Disclosure: I work for a private VPN company This depends on the VPN provider. Private VPN services share IPs between customers, and the extra layer of privacy they provide comes with high potential for abuse. Some providers care more about preventing fraud than others. Cloudfront is likely just blocking IPs that have behaved poorly in the past, so I'd suggest you look for more reputable VPN providers that actively weed out fraudulent users.
  - redblacktree 10y ago
    Could you provide some more advice (or links to advice) on this? I'd like to set up whole-house, always-on VPN, but I'm concerned about service quality issues, specifically blocking. (i.e. the wife will make me take it down if it adversely impacts her ability to watch Netflix or inconveniences her in any other way)
    - rqebmm 10y ago
      Sure! Our company has been working on a "whole-house, always-on" product for a while, but it hasn't taken off because of the difficulties involved with having users flash Tomato onto their routers. I'm guessing HN readers are a bit more comfortable with that :). https://www.goldenfrog.com/vyprvpn/vpn-router https://www.goldenfrog.com/vyprvpn/vpn-router
- LeifCarrotson 10y ago
  Cloudfront doesn't hate VPNs. Cloudfront customers hate the users who use automated tools to perform click fraud, post fake comments and reviews, send spam, attempt vulnerability scanning, and try to brute-force logins. These malicious users overwhelmingly use VPNs, Tor, and botnets to perform these actions; few use their own connections. Legitimate users overwhelmingly do not use VPNs or Tor. Do you see what's about to happen? Cloudflare customers want their CDN to block these malicious actors, and Cloudflare can easily identify Tor and VPN providers. Cloudflare adds a captcha, which is intensely annoying to legitimate users, but debilitating to automated users. The vast majority of users are unaffected, and customers are happy, but the few legitimate people using Tor and VPNs conclude that Cloudflare hates them.

mmjaa 10y ago

Australians simply don't care about this shit. They've lived in an industrialised colony, with all its rewards, for too long - as long as they're still able to live the good life, who cares what the government gets up to .. Its a shame, because Australia has, in many ways, a culture that could produce great things. But its still ham-strung by its dependence on colonialist thinking in the halls of power.

vacri 10y ago
What do you mean by 'colonialist thinking'?
- watbe 10y ago
  Only a guess, but I think it means "the government knows what is best for its citizens".
  - ue_ 10y ago
    That is hardly unique to Australia. Britain, Canada, NZ all have no problem at all with censorship, so much that they will even censor fiction. These countries, one of whuch I am a citizen of, have not a single strand of libertarianism in government nor populace, and it's a shame.
    - vacri 10y ago
      Yeah, how shameful. Aus/Can/NZ routinely top quality-of-life measures along with the nordic countries. Libertarianism is codified selfishness, and it's not conducive to healthy societies.
      - ue_ 10y ago
        With regard to libertarian capitalism, I agree with your selfishness analysis. I wasn't referring to that, though, I was more referring to certain rights and freedoms guaranteed for example by the US constitution, and the lack of them in the countries I mentioned. Please see my reply to wycx.

Veratyr 10y ago

Note that the data retention changes that were enacted are mainly applicable to services provided by an ISP itself, such as phone, SMS and email. They explicitly don't cover IP traffic. You can read the text of the amendment here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00039 https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00039. 187A subsection 4 is pretty clear. It's certainly worse than not having it but it's nothing like NSA level snooping.

LordKano 10y ago

Civil and mundane criminal uses were the goal from the beginning. "Terrorism" was just the tool they used to sell the masses on the idea.