TechnoparkToday.com – Techies News, Jobs, Events & Lifestyle! Technopark News Jobs & Lifestyle!
TechnoparkToday.com >>The customers of the leading internet provider – Asianet Dataline ( ADL ) recently had a weird experience when they browse internet. A pop-up javascript driven advertisement window appeared in all of the web pages, the customers browsing, including the high security banking websites.
Customers were panic since its appearing in every pages they access, and they thought that its due to some malware in their personal computer. but later only some techies found that, its coming from the Asianet itself.
This is considered as a big security risk, and the breach of customer privacy. the advertisement is driven by some javascript ( via website: streamride.net ), and thus it can even steal your personal information, credit card information or even some sensitive data in your computer. even if the asianet is not doing it purposefully, any hacker/ person with a malicious intention can easily do it.
Other than that, as a paid subscriber, it’s not supposed to get sponsored advertisement from an internet service provider, and some people believe that it may even the breach of some laws.
There are many workarounds to disable such advertisement pop-ups. but a majority of the ADL users are not that tech savvy, and thus they would be the prime victims.
Many Asianet Dataline customers including the tech community is very much concerned about the irresponsible behavior of Asianet, and many customers are planning to stop the service.
“I’m using ADL for years, and i was satisfied with the service. but such kind of security risks made me to think about stopping the subscription and going for better alternatives. there are many companies providing wireless dongles, at a better rate and better security” -said Sanil Madhavan, Software Engineer in Technopark
This is not a good practice. we are paying and using the service, and this is not supposed to happen.
its very disturbing. if they are providing a free service, its okay with the pop up ads, but we are paying, so they have no rights to inject these kind of ads with our page request. I wonder they can even access our personal data by these kind of activities. as a customer, I request Asianet broadband Limited to stop this immediately.
I called asianet dataline customer supporter executive to compliant about this. They told that this is a common thing and if we dont like to see this, we have to tick the popup blocker in the browser setting.
This needs to be addressed as soon as possible. this can make some serious impacts. so if they continue this, I request everyone to stop the asianet dataline and look for other services.
Even non-techies can learn how to fix this crap here – http://dipinkrishna.com/blog/2012/03/remove-ui-streamride-net-ads-injected-isps-asianet-case/
First of all their Payment page does not have HTTPS! When I checked with their Customer Service, they said it is actually secure even if it is not a HTTPS page! :-O
The bigger security risk with local ISPs is their local staff. I have heard of instances where people check on others through their local friends in local ISPs. It is not too hard, is it?
May be I have popup blocker activated, so it didn’t appear. But they shouldn’t show ads, because it is a paid service. If they have plan to continue this kind of behavior, it is time to throw out.
Asianet customer service sucks, especially the billing section.
I’ve informed cyber-cell. I hope more people will come out against this. The pop-up can be blocked but the point is this is unethical, a sever privacy breach and thousands of normal users are never gonna realize that a javascript injection is happening. They should feel sorry for thinking so lowly about the tech awareness of people in Kerala.
This is very un-ethical, because only techies know what is happening, and the non techie people are helpless. they think it is the part of the web sites, and when it popup the attractive advertisement like – chance to win an iPhone, they will click on that.
As a paid service, the asianet doesn’t have any rights to inject the code to direct in to a third party website. this is un-ethical and against the laws. so please spread the awareness, and if they are not willing to remove such kind of frauds, STOP the asianet subscription
Move over to BSNL broadband. They are quite good, economical, and service is not as bad as people think.
BSNL is good but how soon we can get a connection? one week?
What asianet is doing is wrong and unethical. we are paid customers, and we are paying for the internet connection. we wanted to see the website as it is, not by adding your own script and advertisement popups. people will think that, the website owners are putting the ads and thus it spoil the reputation of the websites. Govt should take serious actions against such autonomous actions of ISPs
If you need to complain , you can give it in writing to Mr. Krishna Kumar, the Nodal Officer, (acting – secretary to the Appellate authority) , in Leela Infopark, Technopark .
The complaint format is available here : http://www.asianetdataline.com/form.pdf
Asianet Satellite Communications Ltd,
2nd Floor,
Leela Infopark,
Technopark Campus,
Trivandrum
Reply from Asianet :
As informed earlier, the only option available to by pass the advertisement links is to route the connection through our server which requires username and password before connecting to internet.
—————————————————-
I think the only way out is to visit Mr. KK / Thomas Antony in person and submit the written complaint .
Also, I would love to have a chat with the person who thought of this idea.
Asianet became an unethical company. how we can trust such ISP? what guarantee is there in the fat that they can steal our data? this can’t be justified.
Now they have started showing interstitial ads.
In-spite of getting the complaints, Cyber and Hitech Cell aren’t doing anything.
Why should we stick on the asianet for the internet? they are putting ads for our own cost. friends, could you please advice the details of other providers, especially the USB dongles, and 3G connections and their rates?
Now a days the ad is not coming. I think they stopped that. Anybody still having it?
@Dipin – Cyber Cell, when we last heard, acts mostly against political enemies only or under political pressure. Thankfully, this government is busy tackling their enemies in a different way.
Coming to your local friendly neighborhood ISP, you should be worried about your personal data and browsing habits more than popups and scripts because the local boys in the local ISP could possibly share local data with local people. You could just walk up there and get information if you know a local boy there. Just like the local boys in the mobile provider’s office who will give you details like who is speaking to whom and how long. 😉
Ads are still there, I called up their technical support 0471-2575222 . They told that ads are supplied for only users subscribed for unlimited plans and told they would give an option to sign-in with the Asianet username to connect to the Internet for an ad free experience. But what about the other thousands of non-techie customers who are never gonna realize this is done by Asianet? We need to raise our voice against such unethical practices. I’ve made post against this at my personal blog too :
http://akhilspassion.blogspot.com/2012/06/javascript-ads-injected-by-asianet.html