TOR and ISP

[Scott Bennett]

     On Sat, 26 Dec 2009 17:21:01 -0800 Seth David Schoen <schoen at eff.org>
wrote:
>arshad writes:
>
>> if the ISP doesnt know, which sites the user visit. then they cannot
>> provide the sites visited with the bill if the user requests it?
>
>That's correct.
>
>> AFAIK all ISPs provide visited sites upon request right?
>
>I've never heard of an ISP in the United States providing this service.
>It sounds extremely unusual to me.
>
>ISPs are easily _able_ to record what sites users visit, but in many places
>there are legal and cultural norms against the ISPs doing so, or against
>the ISPs reminding users that ISPs have this ability. :-)
>
     On the contrary, in the United States, all ISPs are *required* by
statute to record all URL requests that can be detected passing from their
customers through their equipment.  I doubt that they provide this information
to private individuals, and doing so may well be prohibited by ECPA, but they
can be required to submit their logs of this information to statute
enforcement agencies.  (N.B.  I use the term "statute", as opposed to "law",
because any statute that is contrary ("repugnant" is the word used by the
Supreme Court) to the Constitution for the United States of America is not
and cannot be law.)
     The key here is that the ISPs not only cannot detect encrypted URLs,
they cannot detect what the user is doing, not even whether the user is
trying to connect to a port or is simply transmitting packets over an already
open connection or is closing a connection.  They cannot detect the
destination address or port number.
     If the OP had bothered to read any of the tor documention, he would have
known that this is fundamental to tor.


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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