Re:Brave, the false sensation of privacy
by wizzwizz4 on Friday June 18, 2021 @02:21PM
(#27553264)
If the ISP is checking for DNS lookup of speed test websites, then allocating higher bandwidth to the connection for a brief period of time?
Or, somehow more cynically, the ISP makes money from selling the data collected from DNS, so punishes people who use a different DNS provider. (DNS is plaintext-by-default, so I don't quite see how this would work, but it's possible.)
Or perhaps the system uses DNS lookups as a proxy for “is a human browsing the web”; if there aren't enough, it's clearly some kind of automated computer program that doesn't deserve internet access.
Re:Brave, the false sensation of privacy
by jaywalk on Friday June 18, 2021 @03:42PM
(#27554115)
Your first example would be dead simple to detect and take advantage of to get those boosted speeds all the time. Your other two examples are a bit wild.
Or, somehow more cynically, the ISP makes money from selling the data collected from DNS, so punishes people who use a different DNS provider. (DNS is plaintext-by-default, so I don't quite see how this would work, but it's possible.)
Or perhaps the system uses DNS lookups as a proxy for “is a human browsing the web”; if there aren't enough, it's clearly some kind of automated computer program that doesn't deserve internet access.