What can your ISP see when you connect to IRC reddit / irc ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 12:08 Just wondering. Can they see which files you download or anything like that? Or chat logs? What exactly can they access? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2015-04-15 12:33 If you connect to IRC via SSL, your ISP can't see anything. If you connect to IRC without SSL, your ISP can see everything, private messages, etc. Use SSL when possible. Files transferred via DCC are almost always transferred as unencrypted plaintext, but the transaction is ephermeal, so unless your ISP is saving all traffic to every random port you should be safe. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 12:54 Oh yeah, using SSL. I think my ISP is under the new meta data retention laws. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2015-04-15 13:03 I do wonder if ISPs and governments care enough about IRC to monitor it in that way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 14:06 Well if ISPs are told to log everything then I'm guessing they have to? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tavaryn · 2015-04-15 14:10 Just remember that just because you're using SSL doesn't mean that everyone in your channel is, and that if Someone wants to read what you're saying, those other users can be monitored instead. Other than that, your ISP can see the IP of the server you connect to even if you're on SSL. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 14:23 Oh I don't care if they can see the IP Can they see my activity is my question. Not just chatting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tavaryn · 2015-04-15 14:28 What do you mean by "activity"? File sharing over DCC? There's a pretty good chance that a DCC connection is totally unencrypted (even if you're connected via SSL), in which case your ISP can see whatever they want. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2015-04-15 14:46 They only log metadata, supposedly. Like the locations of web pages you visit, the names of files you download, etc. IRC is a relatively minor protocol and there's not a lot of metadata to be recorded on it, so I wonder if they monitor it at all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 14:53 Yeah that's what I mean. So even for IRC you need a VPN? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 14:55 But if you download via IRC, they can monitor that though right? Files you download? Just from regular sites? Does that include streaming as well? Or say an mp3 off a website? Things like that count as metadata? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- tavaryn · 2015-04-15 15:13 That really depends on your level of paranoia. I can't speak as to whether or not they ARE watching your DCC connections, but I personally wouldn't trust it without a VPN if you think they have reason to. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 15:15 Well the laws here don't define meta data yet. That's interesting.... It's given me some food for though. Thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2015-04-15 19:04 DCC is plaintext, it can be tracked but *probably* is not because it's a very very uncommon protocol nowadays. If you download something over HTTP, they can see it. This includes streaming. Use HTTPS if you're worried about tracking. Even with HTTPS, they can still see that you visited that server. However, they won't be able to find out what you downloaded. They can infer the general size of the download though. Use Tor if you're worried about tracking. It's better than nothing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- flotwig · 2015-04-15 19:12 When it comes to DCC, if they want to monitor it, it would be trivial to do. No debate there. The real question is, does the ISP care enough to implement an algorithm which does deep packet inspection for DCC commands? Probably not. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 22:53 Thanks for that info! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- SharnaRanwan · 2015-04-15 22:54 True, unless they were required by law to butI'm not sure DEC counts as meta data. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ant4t · 2015-04-20 04:39 Yes, very cool. Thanks for the info.