internet service providers

11.23.09

UK Government Plans to Monitor Social Networks, Chatrooms, and Online Games

The UK Home Office plans to ask communications firms to monitor all Internet usage for law enforcement

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 11.09.2009 at 1:34 pm 12 Comments

UK netizens may find their online activities under ever-greater scrutiny in the near future. The UK government has pushed ahead with a proposal to require monitoring of Internet usage, including social networks such as Facebook and conversations within online games.

The new UK law would require communication firms to hold records of who contacted whom, rather than the actual contents of online conversation. About £2 billion ($3.34 billion) would go toward compensating the firms for the technical challenge of collecting the data.

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A Cure for Subscription Fatigue

Tired of Internet providers constantly jacking up the price? Who says you have to take it?

By Jon Chase Posted 02.26.2008 at 6:05 pm 8 Comments

Perusing my cable/Internet bill this month from my local de facto monopoly, I picked my jaw off the floor and found myself on the horns of an ethical dilemma: To be a bandwidth thief, or not to be? That is indeed the question, as the fleetfooted Roadrunner has once again jacked prices through the stratosphere, leaving us folk on terra firma scratching our heads. The deal is, I get the same TV channels, and less bandwidth, but for more money. Genius! Tallying the rest of my monthly bills up against my humble paycheck, I started to get queasy, lightheaded and tired, and then I realized what it was. Ive got a full-blown case of Subscription Fatigue.

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