possibility of switching the site over to HTTPS?

[mourningdove]

Oh darn. Sorry to hear that.

[mourningdove]

An article quote that is unfortunately relevant to this thread:

Clarifying events in politics are often healthy even when they produce awful outcomes. Such is the case with yesterday's vote by House Republicans to free internet service providers (ISPs) – primarily AT&T, Comcast and Verizon – from the Obama-era FCC regulations barring them from storing and selling their users' browsing histories without their consent. The vote followed an identical one last week in the Senate exclusively along party lines.

It's hard to overstate what a blow to individual privacy this is. Unlike Silicon Valley giants like Facebook and Google – which can track and sell only those activities of yours which you engage in while using their specific service – ISPs can track everything you do online. "These companies carry all of your Internet traffic and can examine each packet in detail to build up a profile on you," explained two experts from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Worse, it is not particularly difficult to avoid using specific services (such as Facebook) that are known to undermine privacy, but consumers often have very few choices for ISPs; it's a virtual monopoly.

https://theintercept.com/2017/03/29/to-serve-att-and-comcast-congressional-gop-votes-to-destroy-online-privacy/

[Blueberry]

Thanks for posting that Mourningdove. Though I understand OOTS' problem that the computer expert has left the forum. Maybe somebody else could help? (Not me however I  enough about it)

[Kizzie]

Hi Mourningdove -  If switching over to HTTPS prevents what the quote/link is talking about with respect to US ISPs, unfortunately I am still looking for some IT help (i.e., so I can't make that happen until I do).   

[mourningdove]

I understand, Kizzie. I'm not 100% sure if HTTPS will prevent that (need to look into it further), but I think it means the difference between ISPs being able to store and sell the info that some of us in the US have visited OOTS, and ISPs being able to store and sell exactly what we looked at and what we wrote on OOTS.

[Blueberry]

mourningdove, is this link about ISPs affecting just people in the US? I thought Internet problems of this sort have a world-wide effect. Well depending on what other countries agree to do with the US, behind closed doors and all that. Not that I want to turn this thread into a political discussion at all! It's bad enough posters in the US being affected.

Kizzie thanks for all your work on this forum. I hope somebody offers to help with IT stuff. But till somebody turns up who has the knowledge/skills and the whatever-it-takes to be able to help now (some of us have trouble getting out of bed and doing minimal self-care), I guess there's not much anybody can do.

[mourningdove]

This isn't a partisan issue for everyday people, because your average person who votes Republican doesn't want this either. I just read about how commenters on Republican-oriented sites are enraged by it all.

And the issue here isn't government spying; it is about internet service providers (ISPs) - companies that already charge ridiculous rates for internet access - being able to store and sell any personal information that they can about their customers without those customers' consent. In other words, those of us in the US might as well print off paper copies of everything we do unencrypted on the internet and send it directly to our ISPs (Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, or whoever) for them to monetize.

[Kizzie]

I understand you meant ISP's in general terms MD, that the article just happened to be about the US. 

I am going to email the creators of this platform (SMF) and see if they would be willing to help out with upgrading to newer versions, switching to HTTPS, adding in chat, etc.  I asked at Out of the Fog but no response which I guess is a response of sorts lol.  April is not as busy for me so I am going to roll up my sleeves and dive into this. Hang in there everyone 

Tks for the compliment Blueberry, sweet of you and of course always nice for Three Roses and I to hear 

[mourningdove]

I understand you meant ISP's in general terms MD, that the article just happened to be about the US.

I honestly don't know enough about the issue to say whether or not it will affect people outside the US. I've read that many countries have data retention laws, whereby the ISPs are mandated to store information for a certain period, but I don't know what exactly they are required to store and whether or not they are allowed to sell it to third parties.

I am going to email the creators of this platform (SMF) and see if they would be willing to help out with upgrading to newer versions, switching to HTTPS, adding in chat, etc.  I asked at Out of the Fog but no response which I guess is a response of sorts lol.  April is not as busy for me so I am going to roll up my sleeves and dive into this. Hang in there everyone 

Thanks, Kizzie.  Please let me know if there is any way I can help.