TBN's recent survey

[HiddenHollow]

Would have liked to see another option in the education question. Associates Degree

 

[Tig]

About the people concerned with the security.

Please quit worrying about online security. Everything you do on the internet is tracked by your IP address. Every site you surf, every e-mail, instant message and everything else is tracked and trackable.

Try to not worry about it. Sometimes it's a good thing that they are tracking. Might actually stop some something bad once in a while.

The internet is a public place and we should all behave as such and we will have no problems.
Unfortunately, when it comes to tracking bad guys, tracking is easier to circumvent than it is to exploit. We mostly catch the dumb lazy bad guys.

 

[RickB]

Would have liked to see another option in the education question. Associates Degree

Good point.

 

[aczlan]

semi- off topic
not exactly...the only way anyone (or any other computer) can connect any given IP address to an individual is if your ISP wants to give it to them (usually only done by subpoena)...

<tinfoil_hat>
Surveymonkey says that:

SurveyMonkey also collects the IP addresses of survey respondents on behalf of survey creators unless the survey creator has elected to create a survey without IP address collection turned on.
(Source)

Assuming (in my best paranoid fashion) that those are turned on, it would be fairly trivial to crossreference the IP addresses from the survey with the server login records and thus be able to identify those who responded by TBN screen name.
</tinfoil_hat>

Is that feature turned on? There is no way for us to know. If it is, will it be used for such a purpose? Again, there is no way for us to know.

An excellent non-nefarious reason to turn on IP address collection would be to detect if some kind soul was filling out a bunch of surveys with false responses to muddy up the results.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

Would have liked to see another option in the education question. Associates Degree

Yeah. I have two of them. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

<tinfoil_hat>
Surveymonkey says that:

Assuming (in my best paranoid fashion) that those are turned on, it would be fairly trivial to crossreference the IP addresses from the survey with the server login records and thus be able to identify those who responded by TBN screen name.
</tinfoil_hat>

Is that feature turned on? There is no way for us to know. If it is, will it be used for such a purpose? Again, there is no way for us to know.

An excellent non-nefarious reason to turn on IP address collection would be to detect if some kind soul was filling out a bunch of surveys with false responses to muddy up the results.

Aaron Z

Most people do not own their own IP address. Just a few do. Most people subscribe to an Internet Service Provider, which supplies your house with a DSL or cable modem. That modem gets a random IP address from your ISP. Your computer in your house then gets an IP address usually in the range of 192.168.xxx.xxx. The most info the IP tracking should get is that you are a subscriber to BRAND X cable company or AT&T, etc... It will not get your computer's IP address. Even if it did, all it would get is 192.168.xxx.xxx which is a duplicate of hundreds of thousands if not millions of other machines. Impossible to trace back without assistance from your ISP.

So IF the survey gathers IP addresses and IF the police get a warrant and IF your ISP cooperates, yes, they can track down your individual cable or DSL modem and then come to your house and see that you have been surfing family friendly tractor websites.

 

[jinman]

I find it is interesting to take a survey like this one because it makes me think about things I don't often consider. For example, the household income question sure made me realize what retirement can do to your bottom line.:shocked: Somehow, saying it on the survey was more to the point than doing my tax return. Luckily, our reduced income is still far above what we need to live and our savings is allowed to grow undisturbed.:dance1:

I guess the reason for this survey was to identify the TBN demographics. Personally, I think TBN has a lot of Baby Boomers who are retiring and may be in the market for tractors and equipment. I'm not sure we fit into a consumer mold that is described by income level, education level, and buying "habits." However, I could be dead wrong about our uniqueness. I have a neighbor who buys his lawn equipment from Sears because he can get a yearly service contract on it. They come to his house and service/fix his mower. When his contract starts costing him $500 or more per year, he is ready to trade for new equipment to reduce the service contract price. His purchases are pretty predictable.

 

[MossRoad]

I find it is interesting to take a survey like this one because it makes me think about things I don't often consider. For example, the household income question sure made me realize what retirement can do to your bottom line.:shocked: Somehow, saying it on the survey was more to the point than doing my tax return. Luckily, our reduced income is still far above what we need to live and our savings is allowed to grow undisturbed.:dance1:

I guess the reason for this survey was to identify the TBN demographics. Personally, I think TBN has a lot of Baby Boomers who are retiring and may be in the market for tractors and equipment. I'm not sure we fit into a consumer mold that is described by income level, education level, and buying "habits." However, I could be dead wrong about our uniqueness. I have a neighbor who buys his lawn equipment from Sears because he can get a yearly service contract on it. They come to his house and service/fix his mower. When his contract starts costing him $500 or more per year, he is ready to trade for new equipment to reduce the service contract price. His purchases are pretty predictable.

Yes. Any time I see reports on demographics I like to see where I fit in. I am usually pleasantly surprised at how much we have accomplished given our income when compared to others with the same or higher income. Of course, being a cheap penny pincher raised by survivors of the depression helps a bunch! :laughing:

 

[aczlan]

Most people do not own their own IP address. Just a few do. Most people subscribe to an Internet Service Provider, which supplies your house with a DSL or cable modem. That modem gets a random IP address from your ISP. Your computer in your house then gets an IP address usually in the range of 192.168.xxx.xxx.

True, but in most cases, you will have the same external IP address (that is the address of the cable or DSL modem) for a week or more.

The most info the IP tracking should get is that you are a subscriber to BRAND X cable company or AT&T, etc... </snip>
So IF the survey gathers IP addresses and IF the police get a warrant and IF your ISP cooperates, yes, they can track down your individual cable or DSL modem and then come to your house and see that you have been surfing family friendly tractor websites.

Here we disagree. Surveymonkey (and any websites you visit) record your EXTERNAL IP address (ie: the address if your firewall or cablemodem) as do the TBN servers in their logs.
If the survey gathers the EXTERNAL IP address (which the servers have to know in order to show you the page) and one were to look at the TBN server logs (which also have the EXTERNAL IP address in them) one could cross-reference the EXTERNAL IP addresses between the two. That plus a little work with DNS records would tell one the general area (within your state) in which you live. No warrant, ISP cooperation or police intervention needed.

Dont believe that it is possible to see that much from an external IP address? Go to WhatsMyIP.org : More Info About You and see what they have to say about you. That information is available to EVERY website you visit.

Is this being done? I dont know (nor does it really matter in the larger scheme of things IMO). If I were doing the survey monkey survey I would record IP addresses? Yes, if for no other reason than to weed out spammers.

Aaron Z

 

[MossRoad]

True, but in most cases, you will have the same external IP address (that is the address of the cable or DSL modem) for a week or more.

Here we disagree. Surveymonkey (and any websites you visit) record your EXTERNAL IP address (ie: the address if your firewall or cablemodem) as do the TBN servers in their logs.
If the survey gathers the EXTERNAL IP address (which the servers have to know in order to show you the page) and one were to look at the TBN server logs (which also have the EXTERNAL IP address in them) one could cross-reference the EXTERNAL IP addresses between the two. That plus a little work with DNS records would tell one the general area (within your state) in which you live. No warrant, ISP cooperation or police intervention needed.

Dont believe that it is possible to see that much from an external IP address? Go to WhatsMyIP.org : More Info About You and see what they have to say about you. That information is available to EVERY website you visit.

Is this being done? I dont know (nor does it really matter in the larger scheme of things IMO). If I were doing the survey monkey survey I would record IP addresses? Yes, if for no other reason than to weed out spammers.

Aaron Z

That's too funny! It gave the wrong town, the correct ISP, but the wrong company. If gave NOTHING that could identify where on my ISP's network I am located.

As I said before, the most they can trace to most people is their ISP and that is it! They cannot identify your name, your home address, or the color of the pajamas you are wearing while surfing the web, either.

Called ID is more dangerous than a web survey.:confused2: