Comments on: Web Integrity Checker - ISPs Inserting Ads Into Web Content

By: Sir Henry

Sir Henry — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:05:03 +0000

@dre:

I disagree with your sentiments on the basis that I pay for them to provide me with access, not content. I think that this is the veritable “inch before the foot” in that, if ISP’s can get away with this, what is to stop them from not only pushing content upon you, but dictating what content you should or should not see? I am very leery of this and feel that they should not be allowed to do such a thing.

Apart from that, however, I do think that simply whitelisting scripts is a good start to alleviating this headache.

By: dirty

dirty — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:18:59 +0000

so they over-charge us for services and then subject users to this $***?!?! unbelievable!

By: Nobody_Holme

Nobody_Holme — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:08:18 +0000

Meh? Just adblock anything from the intercept box… That should kill it. Dunno what you can do if you run opera, exploder, or any of the others, but hey…

(also, yeah, i’m clean. Didnt think Richard Branson needed to stoop that low to make money)

By: Sandeep Nain

Sandeep Nain — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:04:18 +0000

@dre, no thats not right. There is a major difference in services provided by ISP and those provided by Google.

1. Google services are free for end users where ISP is charging the end users for their services
2. Google is putting adverts on the websites created by google itself (except adsense where website owner uses google services) where ISP is inserting adverts in a 3rd party website.

Therefore its totally unethical to insert adverts byISP and must be banned.

No doubt disallowing Javascript, Floash, Activex etc etc will make the web browsing much safer and advert free but it is not practical. you are talking about going atleast one or two decade back when these technologies didnt exist and web was boring. Nobody wanna do so and this is not the solution. There must be some rules and legislations to be put.

By: srinivas

srinivas — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 12:17:21 +0000

ISP’s don’t have any right to serve ads to their users. These kind of techniques are a boon for money seeking ISP’s. Sooner or later we are going to face these ads as we surf web when more ISP’s jump into this business. Users of such ad serving ISP’s have only one thing to do. They should warn their ISP’s to stop serving ads. If they don’t listen, cancel your subscription and choose a new ISP which does not serve ads.

What happens when the ISP’s serve inappropriate ads when the kids and teenage guys n girls surf the web.

By: dre

dre — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:45:50 +0000

I think it’s great and more power to them. If Google can monopolize on everything Javascript, I don’t see why your ISP shouldn’t also be able to do so. It’s your own damn fault for allowing cookies and/or Javascript (or Java applets, Flash, Actionscript, VBScript, ActiveX, PDF, Quicktime, or whatever else browser plugin support)…

Of course, I also think the UW Web Integrity Checker is a wonderful idea. People should learn about who is influencing them and why.

People should also start using inbound WAF’s that remove potentially malicious iframes or Javascript, but then allow them to be whitelisted on a case-by-case basis. I’ve heard of Palo Alto Networks, but there is also their open-source project, Whitetrash. Using (or forwarding) OpenDNS is also a plus, as would be null routing or firewalling various sensitive IP prefixes, maybe ones pulled via a DNS or BGP RBL.

Point of this: don’t trust the web, but help your ISP monotize itself. They are going to need the help, what with the problems the secret working group is attempting to address - let alone the stupid threat of net-neutrality.

By: fazed

fazed — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:27:47 +0000

@pantagruel
Sounds like potential for mass phishing..

By: Pantagruel

Pantagruel — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:40:58 +0000

So basically your internet provider, usually commited to keeping your inbox spam free, will inject ‘customized’ SPAM.

Wonder what happens if the proxy gets h4×0r3d and starts injecting malicious code instead of SPAM.

By: fazed

fazed — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:17:22 +0000

hmm fair play to them
for the idea but anyone doing
this should be shot.
I wouldn’t mind if they gave you
free service because they would
make enough revenue from showing
the ads on every page you visited.

By: Sandeep Nain

Sandeep Nain — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:16:36 +0000

Damn such ISPs.. this is all unfair.
you paying your ISP to provide service and yet they do this kinda stuff to make more money
And usually end-users believe that its the website which is showing all these annoying adverts and pop-ups. End result: websites loose their visitors.
There must be some laws against such activities.

PS: Happy to know that my ISP is not inserting any adverts.