What your ADSL ISP knows about what you do online
The UK government has announced it will push for a law to force Internet service providers to store a record of their subscribers’ web browsing history for a year.
The draft Investigatory Powers Bill will govern the powers available to law enforcement, security and intelligence agencies, and the armed forces to acquire the content of communications or communications data.
The bill will allow police to identify which communications services a person or device has connected to – called “Internet connection records”.
UK home secretary Theresa May said it will not require the full web histories of users. Instead, it will store a record of the communications service a person has used.
“So, if someone has visited a social media website, an Internet Connection Record will only show that they accessed that site, not the particular pages they looked at,” she said.
This raises the question as to what information, if any, South African ISPs record about their subscribers.
South African ISPs respond
MyBroadband asked South Africa’s top ISPs whether they record their subscribers’ online browsing history, who has access to this information, and whether it can be linked to an individual.
Webafrica said it does not track activities beyond the amount of data used.
“The connectivity portion of our services is entirely controlled on IS side. We don’t have insight beyond protocol on an aggregated level – i.e. not user level,” said Webafrica CTO Alan Kirton.
MWEB CEO Derek Hershaw said they only track aggregated usage behaviour over a rolling 30-day window for the purposes of managing and optimising the online experience across their customer base.
Cybersmart CEO Laurie Fialkov said they do not believe they are allowed to intercept traffic in terms of RICA, unless accompanied by a court order.
“The only way to record this is via a proxy, and we don’t proxy or cache at this stage,” said Fialkov.
Internet Solutions (IS) said it does not record subscribers’ online browsing history.
“We are bound by interception laws, namely the Interception act 2002 as mandated by the office of lawful intercept, and thus would comply with all interception requests once due process has been followed by the courts. This data is encrypted and not visible or accessible to us,” said IS.
Telkom said it does not record its subscribers’ online browsing history.
| Questions to ADSL ISPs in South Africa | |
| Are you recording your Internet subscribers’ online browsing history? If so, can you please give details? | |
| Telkom | No |
| MWEB | We only track aggregated usage behaviour over a rolling 30-day window |
| Afrihost | No |
| Internet Solutions | No |
| Axxess | No |
| Vox Telecom | No |
| Cybersmart | No |
| Webafrica | We don’t track activities beyond the amount of data used on a user level. |
| – | |
| Who has access to this browsing history inside the company? | |
| Telkom | Not relevant |
| MWEB | Not relevant |
| Afrihost | Not relevant |
| Internet Solutions | Not relevant |
| Axxess | Not relevant |
| Vox Telecom | Not relevant |
| Cybersmart | Not relevant |
| Webafrica | Not relevant |
| – | |
| If this data is somehow leaked (or hacked), will it provide an identifiable browsing history of a user? (Will you be able to see which websites a certain user visited?) | |
| Telkom | No |
| MWEB | No |
| Afrihost | No |
| Internet Solutions | No |
| Axxess | No |
| Vox Telecom | No |
| Cybersmart | No |
| Webafrica | No |
More on Internet privacy
How much ADSL ISPs know about what you do on the Internet
ADSL piracy legal warnings: Do you need to be worried?
SA ADSL subscribers using torrents being watched
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