Summary: Your ISP controls your internet connection and it's easy for them to monitor the data you send and receive. The question is, why would they bother?
Can employees at a local telephone ISP read my e-mails and monitor my web surfing and tell others about what they read/see?
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Yes they can.
The real question is would they? Probably not.
And if it's of real concern to you, what might you do? I do have some ideas.
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Your ISP knows a lot about you. They ultimately control your connection to the internet. And by control, I do mean total control.
They know where you live, so as to be able to physically get your connection to you. For example, as I've said over and over and over and over, in order to locate you by your IP address, it typically takes law enforcement and a court order. Where do they take that court order? To your ISP, to get them to reveal your physical location.
Your ISP also controls the equipment that all your internet data flows over once it leave your location. You connect to your ISP, and it's your ISP that then routes the data to where it's supposed to go elsewhere on the internet.
Can they "sneak a peek" at your data while they route it? Absolutely they can.
The question is: would they?
Folks, I've said this before too: we're just not that interesting. Why would anyone want to spend time looking at gigabytes of data just so they can spy on your surfing habits or email? Most ISPs are overworked enough as it is, without adding some kind of electronic voyeurism to their job.
In my strong opinion most people need do nothing to protect themselves from their ISP.
OK, so what if you still want to protect yourself? What if you have a legitimate reason for being paranoid?
Several possible solutions come to mind:
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Secure connections - any connection that begins with https instead of http is an encrypted connection. So while your ISP can see which sites you are visiting, the data actually sent to or displayed from the web site on an https connection is encrypted. Using an https connection to a service like GMail is one way to secure your email from snooping. Naturally you're still trusting the mail providers not to snoop on you.
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Anonymous Web Surfing - using services like Anonymizer, Tor or other services like them your ISP can tell that you're using the service but they cannot tell where you're surfing; it's all encrypted. It'll be slower, but it'll be encrypted. And of course you're trusting the service not to snoop on you.
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Encrypted Email - there are several ways to send encrypted email. Your ISP will be able to see who you're emailing, but your message will be encrypted and hidden. Encrypted email is not easy for most people to set up, but it can be done.
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VPN Services - There are services available that will allow you to set up a VPN or "Virtual Private Network" connection to their services which then connect you to the internet. Typically meant for people who use WiFi hotspots a lot (where snooping is a much greater risk and issue) everything between you and the service is encrypted, thus your ISP can't see a thing. Of course the service can.
So it really all boils down to your level of paranoia, which could be quite legitimate or not, compared with the amount of effort you're willing to put into keeping your connection secure.
But ultimately I don't believe that their ISP snooping on them is something most people need to worry about.
Article C3004 - April 25, 2007
Hi Leo: I noticed you mentioned that with services like Anonymizer and Tor, your ISP will know (or can know, if they look) that you are using those services but will not know where you are surfing. A few questions for the fully paranoid:
1) What would that look like to the ISP while you are surfing? Would some specific data that says "Anonymizer" or "Tor" show up as the site you are currently visiting?
2) If so, would the very fact that they now know you are using such a service cause suspicion? "Hmmm. This guy's using Tor. He must be up to something. Let's look a little closer."
3) Is it possible that some ISPs prohibit the use of such services, and could therefore cancel your service for violation of terms? I have read my ISPs terms of service, and it says nothing about it that I can find. My colleagues have done the same and found nothing in their agreements either.
Thank you for this great site! I just found it today and as a student studying cyber laws I am very interested in these topics.
2) No idea. Most people aren't interesting enough to even be looking at, so they may never notice. Most folks have an over-developed sense of paranoia, I've found. Not that *some* people aren't being watched, but most people are not.
3) Depends entirely on the ISP, the agreements and who knows what else. Is it possible? Sure. Will they? Unlikely, I would think.
09-Jan-2010
I think someone monitoring my internet usage, would be bored to death.
Posted by: Charles at February 14, 2010 8:12 PMI am from a 3rd world country they spy on ur internet ,mobile phone,emails and every thing so
Posted by: ahmad at February 15, 2010 6:09 PMthis article is very usful thank you
Most definitely they can and do. I use Cox ISP. I tried using the Anonymizer, and apparently Cox has a system where it immediately acknowledges this program, therefore, I was unable to do any surfing at all. They completely shut down my use of the internet. I had to quit using it in order to use the internet.
Posted by: Jane Doe 2 at February 17, 2010 2:48 PMsurf sites that hopefully will lead them to create a totally opposite/wrong profile on you. Play their cards on them!
Posted by: J at March 11, 2010 10:37 PM