With Tor members may send an email and instant messages, surf the web, and post content online without anybody knowing who or where exactly they are located. Subsequently, it is greatly acknowledged as a crucial tool for bypassing internet restrictions and thereby supporting freedom of expression.

Apparently, this is a great worry for countries that practice authoritarianism and wanted full control and censorship. The notable and most powerful of these countries is China, and the government works with a firewall that shields their citizens from accessing blocked websites.

Not too long ago, Philipp Winter and Stefan Lindskog at Karlstad University situated in Sweden have found a remedy. They have devised a means to circumvent the so-called Great Firewall of China that blocks Tor.

How is Tor blocked

One seemingly obvious means for China to block access to Tor is by preventing access from within the country towards the entry relays.  It is entirely easy as the entry relays are publicly listed, and thus, the firewall can effectively do this. Nonetheless, in expectation of the action, the Tor network will surely operate a couple of entry relays without publishing their details conspicuously to the public. Hence, it is made tougher to block and may easily be changed. The main issue is that the China firewall has found a means to find and effectively block these secret relays as well.

Recently, Winter and Lindskog found out a way to cloak the secret relays even further and unblock Tor. The trick is done by setting their very own secret relay and to attempt to connect to it from within China. Winter and Lindskog commented that the firewall utilizes deep pattern inspection to find the code in every outgoing communications or traffic. Once it locates it, it takes on a potential Tor connection. Thereafter, it attempts to make its very own connection. Once this occurs, the firewall will then block the future access to the IP address. Furthermore, they have devised means to deep packet inspection this.

Not contented, these guys even went to the extent of using Google’s reverse DNS lookup to track down who is working behind all the restrictions. The evidence pointed clearly to the direction of China: China Telecom and China Unicom.

So, how to unblock Tor network?

One good move is to use packet fragmentation. This is accomplished by dividing up the packets so as to deceive the deep packet inspection system. There is one great tool being developed, the so-called Obfsproxy. This will effectively mask the Tor traffic, which makes it look like something else like Skype traffic, for instance.

China is alarmed by the approach, so they actively blocked all published relays designed to make use of Obfsproxy. Nevertheless, the two wiz guys from Sweden have set up a private Obfsproxy relay in Sweden and have successfully connected to it from within China. It only goes to show that the deep packet inspection system cannot spot private Obfsproxy relays and therefore appears like a promising route onward. The sole reason that the China firewall is capable of detecting Tor Traffic is that it is easily distinguishable from other types of web traffic.

The subject of a great debate

Since Tor is an open and transparent organization, these talks about how to unblock Tor are undeniably occurring in public, and Chinese authorities know each and every plan of attack. The publication of the Winter and Lindskog’s white paper regarding their techniques are wide open to Chinese authorities’ full view and scrutiny.

These talks are highly susceptible of becoming blocked and forestalled by the Chinese authorities long before Tor’s people can even implement them.

We are one with Tor in this fight, free people from the shackles of Internet censorship, spread the word about this and support Tor all the way!

Are the files available for real?

I would say those are genuine files (if it weren’t then you know how to scour the internet looking for feedback from people who actually downloaded them). From the time of writing this article, the torrent files were still alive. And due to the conception of torrents, I would expect that this breach has already given the opportunity to hackers and pirates to download whatever they could then share it to the whole internet in a distributed peer-to-peer manner. Which means that even if Sony can technically recover the security breach and close its catalog (or at least bring it back to the normal situation where people would have to buy first before being able to download legal files).

I know you are expecting me to share with you the links for doing so: to be frank with you, I won’t do that. But since it’s very easy to find this out via some search on the internet, I guess you can do it by yourself. For the purpose of writing this article, I just took a sneak peak on what was made available on one of the torrent files so that I can give a more fact-checked information to how-to-hide-ip readers.

Would you download Sony Music for free?

But back to the question I raised as the title of this article which is “Would you download Sony Music for Free?” – my answer is straight simple: I won’t, and I didn’t in fact. Now you may be curious why I won’t?

Well, let’s take a step back first.

As of today, I’m taking for granted that there’s a high number of servers that have been hacked. And if we consider that there’s also a lot of computers from the internet that has been infected so as to contribute to making those attack a “success”, then there’s a high risk that this issue is going to get worse for the next days. This will also mean that hundreds of millions of dollars (if not billions) would account for lost sales from big companies and they would want to recover it in one way or another.

Can you evaluate how much is the Sony’s music catalog worth?

Since the nature of the distribution of the hacked music catalog relies on peer-to-peer (torrent) system, then I can see the legal unit of Sony trying to sue every internet user who would have downloaded those files. Remember, whatever you do on the internet can be tracked in one way or another (especially if you are not as good as the hackers who can create a lot of “untraceable” links from where they can harm whatever system they want).

I can imagine guys from iTunes and AmazonMP3 (as well as other online platforms that allow legal download of music) that can’t sleep anymore since this Sony “open” catalog issue has its way to making part of history, they would think that they can be the next target. On the other hand, I can also imagine a lot of internet users and pirates who are always following the #OpMegaupload hashtag waiting for the next attack where they could profit from it.

Now you know my stand: I truly am amazed how good Anonymous guys can be. They have shown o the world how fragile internet systems can be. And so as to ironically demonstrate it: they have put online for free download Sony’s artistic creations. They’ve made a point.

Would you do it?

But now, for us internet users, it’s another question to ask if we want to download those files. I’ve made my choice, what’s yours? Would you download Sony Music for free?

Internet Freedom – Tech solutions

Indeed, we’ve come up with technical solutions that either rely on proxies or VPN solutions. I guess most of our readers know, by now, my favorite VPN solution providers who are ibVPN (read our complete ibVPN review), PureVPN, Private Internet Access, HideMyAss, NordVPN or IPVanish. But the Internet has grown so vast; it has proven to be a media that can drastically make a change. We all know how the Arab spring sparkled from the Internet, but if we dig further, there’s a lot of stories to be told concerning how the internet has changed this world.

But at some point of time, solutions can’t be technical anymore – and with the pressure of different lobbying, we all know that there’s a fear of the internet becoming a closed wall. By “controlling” the flow of information on the Internet, big companies, as well as governments, are given the power to censor it, or actively push forward the dissemination of “their point of view.”

Declaration of Internet Freedom

It is where the “Declaration of Internet Freedom” comes in. I like the way it is put forward since it reminds us of the “declaration of freedom” or some of those “human rights” declarations that a lot of people swear with. Truth to be told, this declaration has to be known and applied by the highest number of people. And, for that to happen, it has to be translated into the highest number of languages available. It is the time where we praise the efforts made by GlobalVoices Lingua project (and its translators) since they have launched a worldwide effort to translate this “declaration of Internet Freedom.”

Quoting some figures of a GlobalVoices article, there are 6 909 living languages used on this planet. Holy cow, that’s a considerable number. While it’s clear that on the internet, only a few of those languages hold for 90% of the content published, this doesn’t mean that this “Declaration of Internet Freedom” shouldn’t be translated into other languages.

So here’s the deal: we know that our readers are coming from different parts of the World, and we bet you are all familiar with some “non-popular internet language.” So why don’t we give a hand to this global translation effort and make this declaration one of the most popular crowd-translated documents?

Translation day

Wait, wait, wait. I know that the official “translation day” already happened on August 3rd (according to ), but I’m sure no one will say no if some volunteers still want to join in and help with translating for languages that haven’t found any translators yet.

So it’s not like we’re late on this, but we want to share the info and mobilize our readers to contribute to this worth-mentioning and undoubtedly important project that is in line with what we are trying to achieve here on How-to-hide-ip.

So anyone feeling motivated enough for translating?

Had Google hired a professional copywriter to get you reading the privacy policy when they mention that they have decided to unify almost 60 policies, I’m not sure everybody has taken a look at it.

So let’s highlight few items that are worth mentioning. You’ll probably skip this article, as you’ve surely skipped Google’s e-mail announcing the update on the privacy policy.

Why would you spend three minutes reading a too “bureaucratic” writing?

– Well, it’ll only be effective on March 1st, 2012 so you may say you still have time. But you can’t say you haven’t been warned should you have any concerns about this move, so it’s your call. Oh, and in case you think you have enough power to get Google reconsidering this move, well, there’s no way to opt-out from a privacy policy except not using Google services anymore.

– Users can customize their privacy settings. This reminds me of one article I once read where one big guy (I can’t remember who it was, was it Steve Jobs?) who said that Google is becoming the next Microsoft (and Facebook IMHO). Leaving to the user the choice to configure his own privacy settings is like asking someone who’s never been to a kitchen to cook the dinner for tonight while leaving all the ingredients on the table: it just doesn’t work. Have you seen how people react to the multiple Facebook privacy updates? People had enough, and a lot (including me) is considering that Facebook just can’t secure any private information.

Google is informing you that …

So, yes, there doesn’t seem to be an emergency in this Google privacy update, what it actually does is that Google is informing you that they will integrate a lot of the information he has about you in order to improve your experience.

By the way, in case you are still wondering, one report has evaluated that our private information that Google holds is worth between $50 to $5000 per year to all kinds of marketers. So yes, most of Google services we use are free but there’s a price to pay. Remember what I told about the new “SSL feature” on Google searches? Stats about incoming searches to your sites would be invisible to you as a website owner, but they will be available to Google Adwords advertisers.

Given that users behavior are the main assets of sites like Google and Facebook, I expect a drastic revamping of this “internet privacy” issue in the coming months (especially since there’s also very active lobbying for/against bills and acts like SOPA, PIPA and ACTA – Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on the way).

Reading the Google new privacy policy …

So get back to reading that Google privacy, do yourself a favor and check it in order to identify things that matter to you. Quoting the policy:

“Tailored for you

If you’re signed into Google, we can do things like suggest search queries – or tailor your search results – based on the interests you’ve expressed in Google+, Gmail, and YouTube. We’ll better understand which version of Pink or Jaguar you’re searching for and get you those results faster. ” 

But then, there’s that little note that is worth mentioning:

“And we’ll never sell your personal information or share it without your permission (other than rare circumstances like valid legal requests).”

Hmmm, what’s your view on the Google new privacy policy?

Do you think there’s any kind of threat in this change? Or do you think that Google already has a lot of information about you and that this move is just “publicly confirming” that they’ll be using it in a condensed way?

A new SmartHide creation

A new version of SmartHide is called SmartHide VPN and has been released on 5th of December, 2011. It is created to fulfill the ability to use SmartHide on Android and iOS platforms (iPhone, iPad).

SmartHide Mobile VPN features

New SmartHide VPN has many interesting features that make it very useful for Internet users. General features of SmartHide VPN:

1. Every active SmartHide user gets SmartHide VPN free of charge. From now on, every active and new SmartHide user can use standard SmartHide for PC or Mac, and SmartHide VPN for iPhone, iPad and for any Android device.
2. IP address stays the same. It means that SmartHide registered user will be able to use the same IP address that he owns in standard SmartHide Subscription for any tablet or Android device. This fact makes it possible to get several connections to the same SmartHide Personal IP from PC/Mac and from a mobile device. It is very useful if you surf sites connected to a particular IP.
3. As always, SmartHide protects internal and external Internet traffic through its encryption. It secures regular Internet data and the data going through the free Wi-Fi access points in public places.
4. Everyone can set up SmartHide VPN on any device that supports the PPTP protocol. It can be iPad or Android smartphone.

All in all, SmartHide VPN will help every SmartHide user to access favorite sites and apps from anywhere on the Internet on PC/Mac and smartphones/tablets without extra charges with unlimited bandwidth. SmartHide secures HTTP(S) browsing for all your apps and protects your privacy and security.

You can use SmartHide Mobile VPN all your iOS and Android devices including iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. You just need to register any available subscription and choose a preferable instruction for setting up SmartHide VPN.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been under my radar while I wrote about SOPA a few weeks back. While the Stop Online Piracy Act hasn’t been covered on the major news those last couple of days, it doesn’t mean it’s over yet. But as the public were still focused on SOPA, and mainly by the MegaUpload and Anonymous attacks, another treaty was slowly moving forward under the name of ACTA, which stands for “ Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement”.

Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is already signed

As opposed to SOPA that was still to be voted at the US parliament, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement trade agreement has already been signed by few countries. In October 2011, the following countries have already signed this ACTA agreement: Japan, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

Then, while people still recovered from new year’s eve, in January 2012,  additional countries jumped into the bandwagon of signing that Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement agreement. The European Commission members of the following countries have then shown the support to ACTA: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden and United Kingdom.

At the European Union commission, it’s not yet signed per se since the ACTA still has to be ratified by the European Parliament.

But why is ACTA so criticized?

The same arguments that were used against SOPA come back here: Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is seen as a threat to freedom on the internet. But to summarise it, ACTA’s goals are to enforce copyright and tackle counterfeited goods.

As it was with SOPA, the reasons behind setting-up ACTA are genuine: there are losses due to copyright infringement as well as counterfeit. But here again, as the debate is brought to the internet, the anti-ACTA are arguing that it’s another threat to internet freedom.

The main difference with SOPA is that some countries have already signed the agreement. Notwithstanding the fact that it’s a trade treaty, major concerns from Anti-ACTA is that this hasn’t been democratically been debated before being signed.

Not directly related to Internet and piracy

In fact, Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is not only related to internet and piracy, since Wikipedia quotes its objectives as  “The agreement aims to establish an international legal framework for targeting counterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement on the Internet, and would create a new governing body outside existing forums, such as the World Trade Organisation, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, or the United Nations.” . Now the question is: like SOPA who mainly targeted internet piracy, will the fact that ACTA covers more non-internet related items (generic medicines as well as counterfeit goods) dilute the act so that it will see less activism against it over the internet?

As you may guess, behind Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement stands legitimate companies that suffer from counterfeit and piracy acts. There’s a huge difference here, however: it’s not only about the internet anymore even though most arguments are mentioning the fact that ACTA is threatening the freedom that has always been associated to the Internet.

There’s still a lot of legal discussions as well as major interests at stake here. As a simple user and internet user, do you think Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is something you should care/worry about?

I wonder how is the Facebook user value calculated?

I understand that Facebook sells ads and that’s how it mainly generates revenues. But at the same time, when you read that General  Electrics, a big industry player in the US,  just withdrawn a $10 million Facebook ad budget because they were not convinced about the efficiency of the media, I can’t help but wonder.

So could it be that Facebook has some other hidden values that we, as lambda users, can’t figure out? I’m no financial guru, but I can do simple maths. And that simple maths tells me that every Facebook account has generated $16. Simple math I said, since, if we consider that Facebook has probably reached 1 billion users and that the IPO has been valued at $16 billion, then we get $16/user. Frankly speaking, I don’t know how to put this figure into perspective.

Google user vs Facebook user comparison

Let’s try to find some comparison, just for the sake of it. On another article, I told you that Google values your private data at $25. With that in mind, can we say that Facebook values similar data at $16? This is oversimplifying, and I know this is such a crazy comparison, but this is the only example that came to my mind so far. Digging further, we can also think about the $1 billion acquisition of Instagr.am by Facebook that was done recently. But at least, on Instagr.am, there’s not that much sensitive private information that we are actually sharing (at least before it got integrated into Facebook and other online identities).

Has the Facebook user-base been sold at $16 billion?

This brings me back to my initial question: has the Facebook user-base been sold at $16 billion? We also have to take into consideration other assets (infrastructures, human resources, patents, …), but still: user-base and user activities are what makes Facebook so powerful- a Facebook without users is just a meaningless empty blue box.

I can imagine that Facebook apps can eventually sell: but from my understanding, Apps get paid via ads. I also know that Facebook has recently been pushing for paid ads that will encrust into the user’s timeline. But as a user of Facebook, have you ever clicked those paid ads? Probably yes, probably no.

One thing’s for sure: Facebook has a lot of private info

Despite all of this, one thing’s for sure: Facebook has gathered a lot of private information on a billion people all around the world, which is 1/7^th of the total population in the world. Ads probably aren’t the only way to market this database.  I’m sure some smart people out there have found new ways to monetize that huge database instead of relying on an old-and-tested ad-based revenue stream (which still pays, I do agree). But if we reconsider Google’s offer who’s ready to pay $25 for accessing one user’s internet history, I just can’t help but think that there’s a price for everything, and $25 is quite a big investment if you multiply it by millions of users.

Now what? As Facebook users, we’ve been sold for $16? What’s your view on the Facebook user value?  After all, Facebook users are at the heart of this business (as it is common with every social media venture out there). Does it surprise you? Do you think it’s fair enough? Feel free to comment.

As I started talking about the opposition between law and internet on my end of year book reading recommendations, it seems like I’ve opened the Pandora’s box.  The issue is simple: innovation is happening so quickly in the internet field, and then legislation tries to catch-up by trying to pass some laws and regulations. The most widely covered law/bill is currently the Stop Online Piracy Act that is about to be passed in the U.S. Learn about law and the Internet.

On the other side of the North Atlantic ocean, the European Union is also busy trying to address some privacy issues with regards to websites. It is called the EU cookies directive and you can check the full details here.

So what’s the point here?

Clearly, this law will enforce website owners to ask for permission from the internet user before setting a cookie to be stored on that user’s computer. Again, the main goal here can be legitimate:  website owners are trying to collect as much information as possible from the internet visitor so as to customize the browsing experience, this law just wants to systematize the fact that those websites should ask for permission first before setting those cookies.

I don’t know about you, but when I’m brave enough to check the cookies that are stored on my computer, I’m more than astonished to find out the huge list of cookies that lies around. Most of them come from domain names that I’m not even aware of. So, I tend to think that for any website that I visit, there must be multiple cookies that are used.  I can only think of all those sites using JavaScript that can do so, among which is the biggest player of the internet, I name Google with its Google Analytics tracking software.

Wanna simulate how it’d work?

So I searched the internet for a site who’d be daring enough to simulate what would happen if a website would have to ask for permission before setting a cookie on a user’s browser. And I found a gem and funny page. So, I tried to answer all the questions, and I can tell you I was a bit tired at the end after answering 5 or 6 cookies-related questions. Wanna have a good laugh? Go and check this webpage that simulates how the user experience would be with the EU cookie law.

Funny? Disturbing?

Made you wanna run away from that website? I had the same feelings too. Now imagine a big e-commerce site (or even a small eCommerce website) who’d ask that number of authorizations when someone wants to visit the site (think of Amazon, eBay or that niche e-commerce site): would you still buy from such website?

I know, this law (or the way it is written as of now) may seem “non-sense”, anyway, it seems to be taken seriously into account by big guys (again): have you noticed that Youtube, for example, have included the embedding via iframe of their videos instead of JavaScript? They now ship with a “privacy enabled mode”.

As unbelievable as it may seem, this topic is yet to become another “story of the year”. What’s your view on this “law and Internet” issue?

More power to “Hollywood & Entertainment” industry

Because it gives again, more power to “Hollywood & Entertainment” industry, it may lead to unauthorized censorship and may influence (in a bad way) internet in the whole world we think it should be opposed. Introducing more and more restrictions over the internet, its users and providers will not stop piracy but it will stop freedom and evolution of the web. As it is it may also lead to complete lack of privacy and anonymity. As above mentioned Android Authority we will use Wikipedia to tell you first what SOPA is:

“The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), also known as H.R.3261, is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.”

SOPA – Know the supporters of both sides

Against SOPA

On the business side of things, news is reporting some very popular radical stand vis-à-vis the SOPA: for example, Godaddy initially publicly supported SOPA, but then, once the community started targeting them, and especially when a high number of their current customers have decided to move away from Godaddy’s services, they decided to publicly claim that they are against SOPA. We aren’t going into the details about knowing if that decision was taken for commercial reasons instead of conviction.

On another side, Reddit, the popular user-curated news site has decided to blackout his services on January 18th to show their protest against SOPA. This is a courageous move, and while people are expecting a similar move from big internet companies, it is expected that there will be more mobilization for the coming weeks to put the pressure on. The site Americancensorship.org maintains a list of people and organizations that are actively involved in combatting SOPA.

Pro SOPA

People supporting the SOPA are also active. Since we have issued a list of people against SOPA, here is the counterpart: those who are supporting the SOPA bill. Just for the note, interestingly, as I searched the internet, I didn’t find a lot of “news” showcasing people/organizations supporting SOPA.

I know, I may not have used the proper search terms, but anyway, it makes me think that since we’re on the internet, and that SOPA deals with internet censorship, could it be that the internet has “censored” SOPA supporting news? I know, this sounds like a conspiracy theory, but I’m sure there’s a lot of convincing/support for SOPA in the offline world that aren’t reported on the internet. If you find some of them, I’d love your comments about it in this article.

Godaddy and SOPA

This act has generated a lot of outcry from internet users. We can even cite that some big companies (Godaddy for example) are now suffering from publicly supporting this SOPA act. More and more people have decided to transfer their web and domain hosting accounts to other providers mainly because Godaddy has initially backed up the SOPA act.

Despite the fact that GoDaddy stepped back and reviewed its position, it is clear that users have already made up their mind and that the damage has already been done the minute they have publicly shown their support to the SOPA act.

Anyway, it is expected that more companies are facing the same issues.

But what is SOPA anyway?

Simply said, it’s an attempt by the US to control over offshore “rogue websites” that “steal America’s innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs.”. While the goal is noble – it’s hard to accept that other people are only leeching from your hard work- the fact of the matter is: a lot of internet users do not accept the way it is handled.

Interestingly, major internet big companies have shown their disagreement against SOPA. A long list of companies is available on the internet, but we can cite the letter that Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. That letter is claiming that SOPA poses “a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cyber-security.“. Some companies, like Yahoo, even went further by leaving the US Chamber of Commerce since it supports the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act).

As we can see, there’s a lot at stake here.

SOPA breaks the Internet

If it is passed you might wake-up to quite new reality where your ISP constantly monitors what you do on the internet, where not only download but streaming copyrighted material will be a felony.

It may also prevent new start-ups from succeeding if they will be marked by the entertainment industry as illegal (as once YouTube was!). If you are an American or if you have friends in the USA let them know what is happening – remember that what today is in the USA tomorrow might be a law in your own country as the reach of “Hollywood” can go really far.

How would that affect offshore websites?

Let’s suppose that one offshore website has been identified as one that falls into the “rogue website” category. A US Attorney General can then seek for a court order to bring that website down by presenting that court order to the Internet providers of the offshore website.

I’m not going to go into details into the legal matters (this definitely isn’t my cup of tea). But if I want to be pragmatic, this means that if that rogue website is on a co-hosting web server where my own website is (which happens a lot in the web hosting industry). Then there’s a high risk that my simple and clean website would also be brought down since my co-tenant would have been sued as a rogue website. My website would only count as another collateral damage that none of those big guys would even care about.

When VPN and proxies won’t protect you from SOPA

Let’s suppose that someone does some file-sharing over the internet. Let’s not discuss if it’s legitimate or not file-sharing. Let’s suppose that this file-sharer was smart enough to use a VPN or proxy for doing so.  For whatever reason, let’s suppose that the case comes under the SOPA act, so an attorney wants to know who the guy who did that file-sharing is.

From the logs of the file-sharing server, there will be an IP address showing the computer that did the download/upload. So by going up the line, the attorney would find that IP address belongs to the VPN or Proxy service provider. He will then ask who that IP address belongs to. SOPA allows him to do so.

At this stage, there may be some hot discussions about privacy and all those long political/legal debates so as to identify if the VPN provider would provide the information or not. Should the SOPA become enacted, then there’s a legal argument that the VPN provider can’t deny, so he’ll be obliged to reveal the IP address corresponding to that specific connection.

Wait, wait, wait …

Aren’t VPN providers supposed not to log those kinds of things?

Well, let’s just consider that if it isn’t clearly written on the contract that they don’t log your IP address, or anything private, then just assume they’re doing it – so I strongly advise you re-read your contract with the VPN or Proxy provider. From here, they have your actual IP address. Guess what, the SOPA enables the attorney to ask the ISP to reveal who used that IP at that time – guess what: the ISP would have to give the information he has about you on their files (or at least the data that are associated to the internet contract).

Back to you …

Anyway, this SOPA case isn’t over yet. It surely is a good scenario for another Hollywood movie that would be titled “Hollywood vs internet: battle of the Titans”. What’s your view on this SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) case?

Disposable mobiles for contacting the lawyers

Indeed, the “lesson” comes from Katie Holmes as she used disposable mobile phones for initiating the contact with lawyers that will prepare to file the divorce. Hollywood movies have been great at telling us stories about spies tracking their suspects from those suspect’s mobile phones, credit card usage as well as internet usage.

As a lambda internet user, we can initially think that those abilities are only available to the highly-equipped intelligence unit. I’m sure, if you ever watched spy movies, you take it for granted that those intelligence units can triangulate to precisely define where a cell phone is located.

Another classic situation is the geek of the unit who comes by announcing that he’s tracked from his computer that the credit card of the suspect has been used somewhere in the country. Well, I may have watched too many 24hours series (I’ve watched them all eight seasons and miss it). But, as “unexpected” as it can be, reality has just reminded us that those happen. Well, at least, Katie Holmes had some serious reasons for not trusting her regular cell phone. Though she had to have, a friend buy her a disposable one for having private conversations with her lawyers.

The privacy and anonymity of a divorce

What’s ironic with this situation is that, viewed from our point of view, this privacy issue on the divorce of this highly popular couple just reminds us about the movie called “The Firm” that Tom Cruise once played where his character was a promising lawyer that got into a high-end law firm – and that by the end of the day his character ended up in trying not to be tracked. But this time, in reality, his wife thinks that he (or the unit he is part of) is the prosecutor.

What do YOU think?

So, what does this story mean to us, lambda users who aren’t necessarily at the forefront of every tabloid?  Are we safer because we aren’t popular? Does these tracking tools only apply to “high target” people?

Frankly, I can’t tell you. What’s your view on this?

All I can say is that screenwriters are becoming very precise (or imaginative?) about all those “secret tools” that are used to track us. From the series 24hours to the most recent one called “Person Of Interest”- they all mention some kind of “machine” or “system” that allow them to track almost everybody. On the other hand, when talking about our internet sessions, we all know that cookies are everywhere for tracking whatever you do, under the excuse that they are used for customizing your internet browsing experience.

So, is this Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce a story we can relate to as a lambda user?

Share your view in the comment section.