Is it Legal For Your ISP to Monitor Your Traffic?

[Sectan]

One of my friends (I swear guyz!) was downloading a private World of Warcraft server client. (He owns MoP and is currently subbed), but wanted a little bit of old school action. The next day he's getting a call from his ISP telling him this:

"We need you to change your router password, someone has been pirating data from your connection and it could be up to a 250,000 dollar fine."

Is it within an ISP's rights to monitor your activity like that?

I mean is this common? I would be pretty freaked out if MY ISP was doing that to me when I was getting my fap on...If there's clearly suspicion that illegal activity is going on and police are involved, that's one thing, but just using a torrent shouldn't be treated as such as not all torrented files are illegal or being used illegally.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[Weaver]

What companies do is they also seed torrents of illegal content and then log everyone who connects to them to download it. They know their IP, do an ISP lookup with it then contact that ISP with your IP and tell them you engaged in illegal activity.

 

[Sectan]

What companies do is they also seed torrents of illegal content and then log everyone who connects to them to download it. They know their IP, do an ISP lookup with it then contact that ISP with your IP and tell them you engaged in illegal activity.

From what he tells me it was a torrent that was seeded by a private server that has been up for a year or two. I don't think they would be in the business of getting their own files tracked. Also I think Blizzard would just work to get the file removed instead of threatening people who downloaded it.

 

[DazZ.]

Also I think Blizzard would just work to get the file removed instead of threatening people who downloaded it.

How would you remove a well seeded torrent? All you can do is threaten those who use it.

 

[Sectan]

Also I think Blizzard would just work to get the file removed instead of threatening people who downloaded it.

How would you remove a well seeded torrent? All you can do is threaten those who use it.

I guess you can't remove it. Maybe remove the links, but not much else. All I was saying is I doubt there was any outside intervention from a third party to cause his ISP to call him over possible piracy. (Is it still piracy if you've bought the product and are also paying for the service?)

 

[Xenedus]

Welcome to the joys of CISPA (if you live in the US).

Also, if this bothers you then I would suggest looking into using a VPN service to give the peeping ISP the finger.

 

[Yopaz]

Also I think Blizzard would just work to get the file removed instead of threatening people who downloaded it.

How would you remove a well seeded torrent? All you can do is threaten those who use it.

I guess you can't remove it. Maybe remove the links, but not much else. All I was saying is I doubt there was any outside intervention from a third party to cause his ISP to call him over possible piracy. (Is it still piracy if you've bought the product and are also paying for the service?)

Removing the links is kinda like tearing down a poster though. Except it requires a lot more work to do so and possibly a court order. It's a lot harder to remove them than to put them back up again.

Depending on your country's laws downloading content you personally own might be legal or illegal. Over here it's legal to download a CD if you also happen to own a physical copy and has been a common way for people who got LPs and cassettes that is hard to convert to digital forms.

OT: It depends on where you live. Over here they can do pretty much what they want and soon (as things are looking now at least) they are required to store our data for 6 months even if we're not suspected of anything. So yeah, they are allowed to monitor your activity and they will likely share that data if they're asked to do so. Some ISPS will give you a warning and threaten to shut down your connection. In France they operate on a 3 strike rule. Caught pirating 3 times and your connection is shut down.

I wouldn't mind this if there were perfectly viable legal options that we could use, but right now I see companies fighting piracy by taking down students, families and the poor simply because copyright laws are outdated and thus prevent international distribution methods.

 

[SnowyGamester]

From what he tells me it was a torrent that was seeded by a private server that has been up for a year or two. I don't think they would be in the business of getting their own files tracked.

Yeah torrents don't work like that. If you're downloading a torrent pretty much anybody seeding has the potential to see your IP address, and anybody can seed a torrent...heck in most programs everybody seeds by default in some capacity.

I guess you can't remove it. Maybe remove the links, but not much else. All I was saying is I doubt there was any outside intervention from a third party to cause his ISP to call him over possible piracy.

I can't imagine the ISP gives two shits what you do with their service as long as you're paying for it. Also Blizzard is notoriously pissy about all that private server stuff and understandably so. I'd say they were tipped off by Blizz unless someone is paying them to do the monitoring.

And uh mods, we're not advocating piracy I swear. It's bad don't do it. No bans please.

 

[smithy_2045]

I'm pretty sure ISPs can be made liable for allowing people to download illegal content, so they'd effectively be obligated to monitor it.

 

[lacktheknack]

but just using a torrent shouldn't be treated as such as not all torrented files are illegal or being used illegally.

No, just 99.9% of them. No exaggeration.

OT: Meh. You're sending out data signals through multiple manned stations and you're surprised people can see them? You're not special, no one cares who you are or what you're doing. If your ISP calls you, it's because they have a reason to check your history, ie. they got a call from a lawyer.

 

[Alarien]

The answer is Yes.

Keep in mind that, in the United States, the only protection you get towards you privacy is against the government. There really is no expectation of privacy against individuals or private companies.

I hope that answers your question.

 

[FalloutJack]

They can look, but don't touch. Just because I have Windows doesn't mean they can throw stones.

 

[Sectan]

Thanks for the replies. I just thought it was strange for someone to get a call from their own ISP over something like this since I've NEVER heard of this happening. I could understand a copyright holder or something in that category. While I'm aware that our browsing information is "there" I never thought a provider would take active interest in it unless it was something horribly illegal+harmful done over a long period of time.

Is this something we'll be seeing more of as time goes on?

 

[smithy_2045]

Thanks for the replies. I just thought it was strange for someone to get a call from their own ISP over something like this since I've NEVER heard of this happening. I could understand a copyright holder or something in that category. While I'm aware that our browsing information is "there" I never thought a provider would take active interest in it unless it was something horribly illegal+harmful done over a long period of time.

Is this something we'll be seeing more of as time goes on?

It's been a thing in Australia for the past 5 or 6 years at least. I wouldn't imagine that the ISPs would want to enforce it too strictly because that loses them paying customers. They'll just do the bare minimum to keep the copyright holders at bay.

 

[Parasondox]

This is just me assuming here but I think in the UK they can track it but no law in place to do much else because our government has just started its combat on illegal cyber activities (We are slow compared to the rest of the world). If you yourself aren't flagged by MI5 or whatever other agency, then you may just get a warning on your browser and whatever data is collected on the net, it is stored in a government file for only 3 days and then automatically deleted. Boy we are way behind in the UK, we barely get 100Mbps broadband.

If I am wrong on that, someone from the UK let me know how it works and I know each country has different laws when it comes to content on the internet and use of it.

 

[sth1729]

It violates the spirit of the law to monitor traffic without a warrant. Unfortunately the spirit and the reality aren't the same.

The threat is also bullshit but bullshit tends to hold up in courts if one party has enough money.

 

[zumbledum]

legal in Merica, not in most free countries.

but given the speed of the reply i would suspect thats a torrent blizzard made to catch people swiping their server code. hes lucky if he doesnt loose his Bnet account.

 

[Barbas]

They can look, but don't touch. Just because I have Windows doesn't mean they can throw stones.

I just wanted you to know: even if nobody else noticed, I did.

Spoiler

I wish ISPs wouldn't do this. I need to start asking some of my more tech-savvy friends how they get around this sort of thing sooner rather than later. Still, I do wonder how they can even manage to monitor a fraction of the activity of their customers, especially if they're one of the larger ISPs.