samknows

isnottheword

It's 5.5years ago that I first registered an interest with 'samknows' ref. broadband performance monitoring. It's that long ago that I've forgotten precisely what's involved.


Have other's participated and is there an upside to that involvement? Presumably, you get very accurate statistics with regard to the performance of your fixed internet connection?


Are there any data protection risks?

Robxxx7

isnottheword wrote: »

It's 5.5years ago that I first registered an interest with 'samknows' ref. broadband performance monitoring. It's that long ago that I've forgotten precisely what's involved.


Have other's participated and is there an upside to that involvement? Presumably, you get very accurate statistics with regard to the performance of your fixed internet connection?


Are there any data protection risks?

Did you just get an email from them asking you to take part ?

I received one earlier today so assume they are on some campaign at the moment

isnottheword

Robxxx7 wrote: »

Did you just get an email from them asking you to take part ?

I received one earlier today so assume they are on some campaign at the moment

Yep, just received the email a few hours ago despite having been registered with them since 2011.

Are you going to participate? Are there any data integrity / privacy issues - or does the device they provide just collect data with regard to bandwidth throughput, speed of that through-put etc? i.e. no data collection of what is being accessed, etc?

tsue921i8wljb3

isnottheword wrote: »

Yep, just received the email a few hours ago despite having been registered with them since 2011.

Are you going to participate? Are there any data integrity / privacy issues - or does the device they provide just collect data with regard to bandwidth throughput, speed of that through-put etc? i.e. no data collection of what is being accessed, etc?

I've had one for the past two years. As you say it gives a very detailed report of the health of your connection, speed, latency, packet loss, jitter, DNS are all included. I have found the reports very useful.

They ask you to place the monitoring device between your router and your LAN so technically all traffic passes through it. SamKnows specifically state that they don't gather browsing data but it would be up to yourself as to whether you would be comfortable with having such a monitoring device on your network.

ED E

Depending on your home setup/provider you can isolate the box. This technically invalidates the speed testing but means they've access to zero personal data.


The big downside is they dont tell you where the tests hit off, spose you could snoop it if you were bothered. If my latency is 4ms to a box within Virgin thats great but doesnt help me if its 400ms to the outside world.

isnottheword

I use a VPN service. Does this interfere with their attempts to collect data?

tsue921i8wljb3

isnottheword wrote: »

I use a VPN service. Does this interfere with their attempts to collect data?

I suppose this depends on where the VPN client is on your network. If the client is on your computer or phone then traffic from that device would be encrypted. However if the VPN client is on your router then I assume traffic from your network would still pass through the SamKnows box unencrypted.

In my own opinion they are not snooping on private data. They have published the code used on the devices.

isnottheword

Everly CoolS Swag wrote: »

I suppose this depends on where the VPN client is on your network. If the client is on your computer or phone then traffic from that device would be encrypted. However if the VPN client is on your router then I assume traffic from your network would still pass through the SamKnows box unencrypted.

In my own opinion they are not snooping on private data. They have published the code used on the devices.

Thanks. I've re-done my app and let them know that I run a vpn on my laptop.

ED E

isnottheword wrote: »

Thanks. I've re-done my app and let them know that I run a vpn on my laptop.

Thats fine, they dont care about client side.

The box wants to know how much is being sent (so it can test when its quiet for a fair result), not what is being sent. Either way it would just see streams of gibberish as most of what you do is HTTPS anyways.

isnottheword

Thanks all - they confirmed that they don't care about vpn being used - so all good to go. I've told him to send on the 'whitebox'.

boobycharlton

Also got the email this week. What's the story when the trial is finished? do you still get to keep the box?

ED E

boobycharlton wrote: »

Also got the email this week. What's the story when the trial is finished? do you still get to keep the box?

Yep, but at this point the box is getting old and no sign of the project end.

isnottheword

Got a mail yesterday with tracking number showing box is on it's way out - so should have it installed on Monday.

Kristopherus

boobycharlton wrote: »

Also got the email this week. What's the story when the trial is finished? do you still get to keep the box?

You can keep the box. I had them for two years an then move the box to a Homeplug socket and I have 4 media boxes running off it via ethernet.