Category: Security

May 13, 2014

Domain Related, Hosting Related, Security

Reading Time: 2 minutes

100+ major tech companies have voiced some opposition in defense from a new proposal from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler that would make concessions to a “pay to play” model of network management; which would allow ISPs to charge companies for preferential treatment. These new rules, which are supposed to be voted on May 15, are anticipated to make a major stand against “net neutrality,” which is the idea of a level playing field for all: ISPs should treat all data that travels over their networks equally. The good principled proposal by Wheeler, a former government lobbyist has been opposed in writing by the likes of Google, Reddit, Facebook, Amazon, and others. The proposal reads that the FCC should *not* permit “individualized bargaining and discrimination.” The Open Internet Order, a prior attempt by the FCC to set forth regulations in favor of net neutrality, was shot down in January by a federal court that stated that it exceeded the FCC’s authority.read_more According to the FCC, the latest plan will prohibit ISPs from operating in a “commercially unreasonable manner to harm the Internet, including favoring the traffic from an affiliated entity.” This obviously ambiguous wording has many concerned that it would be “commercially reasonable” to allow ISPs to charge companies like Netflix or Amazon a premium for better network speeds. There are also some dissenting within the federal agency itself. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has stood up and said that the rule-making should be postponed for at least a month to give the public at large at least a minimal time to respond to Wheeler’s proposal. Worried what will happen to its clients, web host Neocities is throttling-down connections from the FCC to 28.8kbps modem speeds as announced on the Neocities.org frontpage (by identifying visitors based on the FCC’s internal IP addresses). While it is obvious that anyone at the FCC will find their access to Neocities only a joke, this is in an attempt to demonstrate how treating online companies differently online could make the internet segmented; where users and companies will need to negotiate network speeds with ISPs; rather than simply making everything fast, available, and equal for...

May 6, 2014

Hosting Related, Security, Security Related

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Date posted: May 6th , 2014 An increased number of big tech companies are denying compliance with government with regard to personal data by updating their terms and conditions and other policies. News that raises concern Washington Post has published that many businesses such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft will be notifying their users when their personal data will be asked by the government. They are changing their company policies to suit this. They would comply with such requests only if a judge or other agencies to do so secretly. Many of the protectors of law are concerned that these moves of the company will intimate the criminals before hand and they will try to destroy the evidence of the crimes committed. The government can loose important information on the case. But they need to know that it is criminal and not just on the part of the government to spy on their citizens seeking their personal information. read_more Peter Carr, spokesperson of Justice Department says,“These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine.” The tech companies have decided not to pay heed to the guidelines of the subpoenas that ask the tech companies not to inform the users of the data request by the government. This move came after Edward Snowden revealed the spying by NSA last year. As of today, Google notifies users about “legal demands” from government agencies under Google's relevant policy unless prohibited by the court. Kristen Huguet of Apple says, “Later this month, Apple will update its policies so that in most cases when law enforcement requests personal information about a customer, the customer will receive a notification from Apple.” Facebook and Microsoft are reported to have following the leads and take similar steps. As of now, 4GoodHosting has not received any requests from the governments of US or Canada asking for client data. But we'll protect our customers' data and let them know if a customer when the government wants to spy on them.