Hotel Connectivity Provider SuperClick Tracks You

saccade.com writes "During my last hotel stay, I thought it was a pretty strange that it took two browser re-directs before the hotel's Wi-Fi would show me the web page I browsed to. Picasa developer Michael Herf noticed the same the thing and dug a little deeper. He discovered: '...their page does some tracking of each new page you visit in your browser, outside what a normal proxy (which would have access to all your cookies and other information it shouldn't have, anyway) would do. This "adlog" hit appears to also track a "hotel ID" and some other data that identifies you more directly. Notably, I've observed these guys tracking HTTPS URLs, and of course you can't track those through a proxy.' Herf notes the Internet service provider, SuperClick, advertises that it 'allows hoteliers and conference center managers to leverage the investment they have made in their IP infrastructure to create advertising revenue, deliver targeted marketing and brand messages to guests and users on their network...'" Herf was on his honeymoon when he did this sleuthing. Now that's dedication.

Comments

I did a little "sleuthing" on my honeymoon

[Gothmolly]

But it involved chocolate sauce, melted wax, and soft restraints. What is this 'Herf' person thinking, signing onto his laptop while on honeymoon? Go get laid you nerd!

Re:I did a little "sleuthing" on my honeymoon

[Joebert]

Cut the guy some slack, he was probably getting ready to print out some diagrams.
You know how the net is, distractions everywhere !

A true nerd

[MyNameIsEarl]

A true nerd would consummate his marriage while surfing on the internet and maybe writing some code while he was at it.

Re:A true nerd

[Intron]

Honey. I thought you said you were getting me pearls and rubies?

Re:A true nerd

[Your Pal Dave]

You call that a python?

Re:A true nerd

[Gzip Christ]

A true nerd would consummate his marriage while surfing on the internet and maybe writing some code while he was at it.

I tried to do that, but there's not much else you can do when you're in the middle of a really long fsck.

Re:A true nerd

[Yottabyte84]

I'm certian I saw a patch that lets you play tetris. Ah, here it is: http://www.movementarian.org/fscktris/fscktris.htm l

Putty w/ dynamic proxy support and an SSH server.

[tgd]

If you've got the resources to run an SSH server at home, use Putty with a dynamic proxy and point your browser and IM clients to it via SOCKS5.

I wouldn't trust any network like that... even if the service itself isn't watching what you're doing, do you trust the other people on that network aren't?

Its easy to surf or do other network apps safely on questionable networks. At least among the Slashdot crowd its easy... but I've educated even my parents on doing that when using public or hotel internet and gave them an SSH account to use at my house.

The wise man assumes

[Silver Sloth]

that nowadays all his actions are watched and recorded. I live in the UK, which, I believe, has the highest ratio of CCTV cameras per head of population in the world. To me it's no surprise that when I log in at the Marriot I'm watched. Fortunately the first thing I do is establish a VPN tunnel to my company's network where I'm being watched by the CIO.

Further than that, welcome to the modern world, cue the cliches (1984, quis custodiet, ...)

Re:The wise man assumes

[Billosaur]

Face it, your ISP is even watching you, noting your bandwidth usage, logging where you go, reading your email to make sure it's not spam, etc. The fact is, any transaction that occurs on the Internet is being logged on a server somewhere, and someone has access to that information. If you're lucky, it's just a sysadmin making sure you don't go over some quota, but you have no way of truly knowing. A true paranoic wouldn't use the Internet at all.

Re:The wise man assumes

[BVis]

Because some of us still care about our privacy; we also think "If you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about" is just about the most offensive thing we could think of.

I just don't think it's anyone's business what books I'm buying, or what threads I'm posting to, or if I look up some rash on WebMD, or talk to my wife on IRC, etc etc. I'm not about to give up my privacy for some corporate bullet point about "leveraging marketing assets." They want that info, they can bloody well ask me.

Re:The wise man assumes

[somersault]

I just don't get why its so offensive, and what I perceive to be the whole american "I'd rather die than lose my 'freedom'" type attitude. Especially considering the way the american government is acting with things like the Patriot Act, etc, americans seem to be less free than the rest of the western world.

You're obviously right though that corporations don't deserve to see into your private life and conversations just so that they can target marketing towards you (though I'd prefer to have marketing I find useful than just general advertisements about crap I don't want or need being thrown in my face), but when it comes to things like spam filtering or for example monitoring sites like MySpace to make sure that kids aren't being abused, I don't see anything wrong with things being monitored.

Again, obviously the government has the ability to go too far, for example with things like the Patriot Act, but personally I would prefer them to have some power, as long as they use it responsibly and for its intended purposes, rather than abusing public trust.

Re:The wise man assumes

[CantStopDancing]

I just don't think it's anyone's business The problem is that it is exactly that - business! While you have money to spend someone will *always* be looking at what you're doing, and trying to convince you to give them some of that luvverly moneys.

Re:The wise man assumes

[drinkypoo]

Again, obviously the government has the ability to go too far, for example with things like the Patriot Act, but personally I would prefer them to have some power, as long as they use it responsibly and for its intended purposes, rather than abusing public trust.

So, what color is the sky on your planet?

This is the very reason why government should have only the power which it actually requires. It doesn't really matter whether power corrupts, or simply attracts the corrupt, or even the corruptible; the end result is the same, and you cannot trust the government. It is in fact the height of stupidity. Ask people in New Orleans how well FEMA took care of them... Ask the handful (at least) of US citizens locked up without being charged or having a trial date set.

Re:The wise man assumes

[karmatic]

You ask - "if you're not doing anything wrong, what do you have to hide?". I ask, "if I'm not doing anything wrong, why do you feel the need to spy on me?".

Avoiding the obvious issues with international law, having your activities spied upon tends to change what you do. In some cases, this is a good thing (less crime) - in some cases, it's not.

Consider someone who is aware of wrongdoing by their company/politician/etc. With the (relative) anonymity of the internet, that person can go online and expose the wrongdoing. Even with laws protecting whistleblowers from retribution, companies (and in some cases, politicians) have a history of making their lives unpleasant anyway. What keeps people from arbitrarily running smear campaigns? With sufficient evidence to convince a judge of wrongdoing by the purported "whistleblower", injunctions and subponeas can be used to stop (and identify) the person in question. The government has the power it needs to enforce (against it's own citizens - it couldn't get foreigners anyway) libel laws online, it just has to go through a judge first. Personally, I think that standard is often too low, but that's what it is.

In addition, much of the purpose of monitoring people online is to attempt to determine information about an individual by the sites they visit. Judging from my history, it looks like I'm a staunch liberal, with aids, and an ACLU supporter. This couldn't be farther from the truth (the AIDS is due to reasearch about blood testing techniques - the batch of blood, mine and others, had someone with AIDS attempt to donate). As an example, reading neo-nazi propanda does not mean you support their cause, or even that you don't find it morally reprehensible. An employer checking the proxy logs won't necessarily know that.

The final argument I would make for privacy is that there are those who would invade the privacy of others to further their own agenda. In the United States, the constitution has the phrase "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated". At the time this was written, this pretty much covered all one did and owned. To ensure law enforcement could do their job, the constitution also states "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." For the government to invade the privacy of an individual, a judge had to determine that there was sufficient cause for a warrant. Politicians have used government resources to attack other policical parties (watergate), imprisoned american citizans of japanese descent, improperly sieze currency and other assets for public use without just compensation, and a host of other wrongs. Honest actions can and have been used in court to make innocent men look guilty - "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

In short, if there is evidence I'm committing wrong, convince a judge of it, and get a warrant. If you lack enough evidence to convince a judge (it's a fairly low standard, really), you shouldn't be spying on me anyway, even in the name of "safety". The safest environment would be a world where throughouly screened guards "protect" the rest of the population, who all sit alone in their padded safe. It would be the ultimate, absolute safety and security, but certainly not a place I would want to live. Freedom is an end worth pursuing on it's own, and it is important to remember that (at least in the US), the government [supposedly] derives it's power from the consent of the governed. If that is no longer the case, the people have the right (and obligation) to replace it with one that does.

I've always worried about this...

[dslknowitall]

...which is why I only get online using my corporate VPN, and never visited any sites that required a login (banking, blog, yadda yadda).

Of course that's assuming the VPN is secure enough...i'm sure there's a way around everything. Hell, just connecting to the WiFi and checking your email can give anyone your password if they have half a brain.

You mean you didn't suspect this automatically?

[davmoo]

You mean to tell me that Slashdotters, some of the most paranoid people on the planet, didn't just automatically assume hotels did crap like this on their networks to make extra money? Are people here that damned naive? The story that would be news would be a hotel that does *not* do this.

Any time I use a network that isn't my own, be it a hotel, restaurant, or even the public library, I just automatically assume that someone who wants to remain unknown is taking an active interest in what I'm doing. Otherwise, why would any of these places provide free networking in the first place. They aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart and so they can sleep warm and cuddly at night. They're doing it because they've found other ways to make a buck off of it.

Re:You mean you didn't suspect this automatically?

[node 3]

The story that would be news would be a hotel that does *not* do this. No. This is news because it's excessive and uncommon.

Otherwise, why would any of these places provide free networking in the first place. They aren't doing it out of the goodness of their heart and so they can sleep warm and cuddly at night. They're doing it because they've found other ways to make a buck off of it. Not everyone is so obsessed with money as you seem to think. Some people, even astute businesspeople, make decisions based on things like, "doing what's right", "giving back to the community", and "providing quality and value". I highly doubt that your average coffee-shop free WiFi is snooping on you.

Such extreme cynicism (as you seem to be promoting) is detrimental to society, and makes for a poor foundation to live by.

Re:You mean you didn't suspect this automatically?

[arootbeer]

It seems to me that your average coffee shop or cafe, local bookstore, any place that doesn't have a huge corporate structure behind it like B&N or Starbucks, is not going to have the least bit of interest in where you surf or what you do. If I were a coffee shop owner (I've considered it more than once) and wanted to add wireless, I would go out and buy a nice consumer grade wireless router, plug it into my cable modem, power it on, post the SSID on the counter, and go back to selling coffee. It becomes a feature of the establishment, and for anyone who's curious, I can tell them exactly how it's set up.

If someone approaches my one coffee shop with the offer of "free wireless service" and they'll pay me a set amount per month to allow it to run in my store, I would turn them down. The hassle of having to allow someone else access to your store whenever there's a problem, as well as scheduling and getting help promptly, as opposed to taking down the SSID sign, stopping by Best Buy on the way home, and then putting the SSID sign back up the next day, would require an awfully rich proposition, and my guess is it wouldn't be worth it to the research company.

Not-quite-honey Moon

[FrozenFOXX]

It's not dedication, just means he's not particularly enthusiastic about his honeymoon.

Not as stupid as others seem to think

[pdawson]

FTFA:

It turns out that Lorna and I both noticed and both got upset about it, so I'm spending a (small) amount of time figuring out how this thing works and what it's after. After all, I'm still on my honeymoon.

He's on his honeymoon, but looks like he was lucky enough to marry another geek, so its all good

Re:Not as stupid as others seem to think

[DoctorPepper]

Some of us are lucky, some no so much.

I had the great fortune to also marry another geek. She's not so much of a computer geek, like me, she's more of a science geek (also like me) and a mathematics geek.

She also thinks my two great hobbies, computers and ham radio, are "cute", and allows me to spend inordinate amounts of money on them ;-)

A disturbing trend

[NimbleSquirrel]

Unfortunately, this is only going to become more widespread. Hotel chains are only interested in profit, and running their own in-house ISP just isn't profitable. They will contract out whereever possible, and for the lowest price.

Superclick already has the backing of major Hotel chains, so it already has recognition in the marketplace (hotel owners). That is not going to change. They would also be very competitive for the services they provide and, given what has been found, it is not unreasonable to think that they are cheaper because they sell off the information they gather to marketing companies.

I cannot see this kind of tracking coming to an end until either the mainstream media make a story out of it, or someone sues the Hotel chain for breaching their privacy (or both).

Some hotels intercept SMTP traffic too

[toga98]

I noticed some hotels intercept SMTP traffic after a client complained he couldn't send email through our mail server while he was on the road. The hotel's service provider was trying to masquerade as our mail server and attempting to intercept the mail delivery. When I tested it I sent a test message through the mail server that was representing itself as our mail server and received the message 12 hours later. Interesting that it took that long to deliver the message and surprising that they would try to intercept messages and authentication information in this fashion. If I remember correctly, this was the Hilton in Chicago. I can't remember the name of the organization that was providing the service for the hotel.

Re:Some hotels intercept SMTP traffic too

[NimbleSquirrel]

That would be http://www.superclick.com/. Take a look at their customers. Hilton is one.

Re:Some hotels intercept SMTP traffic too

[Alpha232]

I won't try to claim there is no evil in this instance...
However there are some providers that do the same type of thing with the genuine interest in helping the guest.

This is NOT uncommon; this is all about providing transparent network services. There are systems already out there (STSN, et.al.) that don't even require you to use DHCP.. If your IP is static, it handles the masquerading needed to make it work without your intervention, same for DNS and Mail.

Take for instance your mom and pop traveler, they are setup for cable broadband, their ISP comes to their home and hard wires the DNS and SMTP settings, and sometimes the IP. Mom and Pop go on vacation and bring their laptop, yes Virginia some non-geeks/non-business people own laptops. What settings do they need to know how to change in order to get online? At a minimum their IP is hopefully DHCP but I'll say that is not always the case, and also DNS which would be set by DHCP unless their IP or DNS settings are hard coded. In this case, the system would see the system using an IP that isn't part of the hotel network and wasn't assigned by the server, so it will do what is needed to make that IP work. Same thing goes for DNS, it will route all DNS requests to its internal DNS server, and sometimes ISP's don't allow public access from the outside.

As far as SMTP is concerned, would you be surprised that in this age of rampant spam that Mom and Pops ISP refuse connections from outside their network? Also in a growing trend, the ISP the hotel uses wants some assurances that the public access isn't allowing mass spamming. In this case the hotel(or their network provider) routes all SMTP traffic to one server on their network which queues it and sends it out. They could be doing spam checks or simply a queue threshold/throttle to limit the damage Mom and Pops zombified laptop can do.

That last point is also my last point, from the Hotel/ISP point of view you're using a computer that is not controlled by the person who owns the network. Most companies do not allow unsecured systems on their network, in a hotel, that is the idea... so measures must be taken to not only have the network adapt to the user but also to protect the host from their guests.

Re:Some hotels intercept SMTP traffic too

[toga98]

Regarding SMTP, we do auth through TLS. That's why email failed to be delivered through their system. My point is that it is disturbing that they capture / attempt to capture authentication information from their clients without disclosing this information. There is a lot of room for abuse considering the type of communication that takes place over email by business travelers. Especially, as you mention that most ISPs either do not require authentication or secure authentication. Some of this could be mitigated by the use of certain email tools, but unfortunately things like PGP and other methods of encrypting communications via email are not well supported by email clients and are even harder to use by those email clients that support them. Not something that a typical business user would be able or willing to manage.

Some? How about "most"?

[Svartalf]

They're intercepting all of the SMTP traffic outbound ostensibly to prevent spammers from renting a room for the night and using their "high-speed" access to cover their tracks. Since my SMTP server can use the alternate authenticated (and SSL encrypted) ports, they're not dinking with my email right at the moment- either way. Their little mail proxy engine is like an open relay and gets rejected by other mailservers if they've got those sorts of countermeasures on. I'd sent some emails to my friends and wife back home to my personal domain- got a bounce that didn't make any sense- it was coming from ME, through what claimed to be a symantec based mailserver. I promptly changed access methods and have had no issues since- I'm not going through their garbage for anything but the web- soon, I probably won't even be doing that much.

OpenVPN

[Shawn is an Asshole]

Or just use OpenVPN. I use this on my laptop. Set it as the default route, use the internal DNS and your good to go. I also use an internal proxy server. So when I'm at a coffee shop or hotel doing some work, the only thing they get to see is encrypted traffic to port 1194 (udp).

Over that connection I can do anything. Instant messaging, email, SSH, http, ftp, BitTorrent, etc.

Re:OpenVPN

[ArbitraryConstant]

Unfortunately, an SSH connection is much more likely to be allowed out than VPN traffic.

I've assumed that this was the case....

[8127972]

.... for years. That's why I've begun to use a remote access product called the MobiKEY. It is a USB token that creates an SSL tunnel with 2 factor authentication (some sort of PKI based scheme) to your home/work computer. The company that makes this has a managed service called MobiNET that helps to broker the connection so that even Joe Sixpack can connect anywhere there is a net connection. Also, since it's SSL, I don't have to change my firewall settings.

By using this product, nobody can snoop on my activities and I can do what I have to do in complete confidence. Problem solved.

They do, do they ?

[Joebert]

Are theese guys based in Soviet Russia by any chance ?

Probably went something like:

[DJCacophony]

"What? This security dialog box is warning me that this certificate is unsigned! Better click 'ok' so I can see my bank account anyways."

pardon?

[rucs_hack]

On his honeymoon?

wow, that's a relationship with a good start.

Re:Some? How about "most"?

[Ninjaesque One]

The only reason that spam is alive right now is because of its horribly low cost: it costs nothing, basically, to send junk mail through the internet. That nothing would be increased by about $70 a day for a hotel room with high-speed internet.

Re:https urls?

[DaveCar]

You are right, but they will be doing your DNS lookups for you too, so let's say they see www.myxxxporn.com get resolved to aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd for your client, then an https request to aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd from your client then there's a pretty good chance you're viewing pages at www.myxxxporn.com. Exactly what you are viewing they don't know, they can't see the content or the path part of the URL, but it's probably good enough to work out what you might be interested in.

Set up an squid/ssh server at home/work, set your browser's proxy settings to a localhost:port and portforward everything with ssh to your home machine. I personally also would only use web based mail (via ssh/proxy) or imaps to read mail too, I wouldn't trust a client not to connect insecurely with imap+starttls, but that's probably just paranoia.

If you are on some kind of public network just assume that someone is watching/mitming everything you do. You don't want to end up on the wall of sheep.

HTTPS tracking

[ACMENEWSLLC]

>>Notably, I've observed these guys tracking HTTPS URLs, and of course you can't track those through a proxy.

Um, yes, you can. It is possible with todays hardware.

Here are a few;
http://www.esafe.com/eSafe/traffic_solutions.asp

Another;
http://www.scmagazine.com/us/products/productdetai ls/94de9e89-b7a1-6d6f-9479-84b866a2ffab/webwasher- 1000-csm-appliance/
http://www.cyberguard.com/products/webwasher/webwa sher_products/csm_appliance/index.html?lang=de_EN
"WW1000 has the ability to scan encrypted SSL"

The days of HTTPS being valuable are long gone. We can look inside this traffic realtime. I monitor & block traffic to HTTPS sites myself..

FreeNX

[astrashe]

I use FreeNX to go back to my home desktop through a ssh tunnel. I use the local desktop only if I want some multimedia -- I'll start streaming a radio station, then pull up my home desktop, etc.

FreeNX is fast enough to make this viable.

You get a lot of advantages from doing it this way. There's the privacy angle, which is a big thing. But you also get your main desktop -- the one with all of your stuff on it.

And you don't need a really fast laptop. Once it's fast enough to run FreeNX, you're ok. I use a thinkpad I bought on ebay for $200. It's not just cheap, it's from the era when laptops ran cool enough to actually hold on your lap.

Re:FreeNX

[drinkypoo]

what does this give you that you couldn't get by tunnelling X via XDMCP over SSH? Doing remote-display stuff is part of the fundamental design of X, after all.

It makes the connection dramatically faster and more responsive. Like, as usable as Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection. X is not very efficient. NX does some other things too but that's the biggie.

Not so fast..

[Kadin2048]

What is this 'Herf' person thinking, signing onto his laptop while on honeymoon?

Well, maybe he was logging onto Picasa to do some uploading...?

Whorehousing

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former employee of a hotel service provider, we would certainly store MAC addresses indefinitely, proxy (and occasionally read) outgoing email (and deny SMTP service for the flimsiest of pretexts), and best of all, t2 support would often tail the squid logs in search of the best pr0n. If the company had been in any way organised you can bet we'd have been selling (aggregate only! honest!) data to the first bidder.

And don't even get me started on the plan to introduce targetted ads direct to the browser on *every page*. What? you think we used squid for performance?

Re:Putty w/ dynamic proxy support and an SSH serve

[Anonymous Coward]

Dynamic Proxy with OpenSSH:

ssh -C -D NNNN @

where NNNN is a port on the local machine. Just setup your network applications to using localhost:NNNN as a socks5 Proxy.
If you are paranoid, make sure DNS lookups are done via the proxy too.

To do that in Firefox. go to about:config in the location bar and make sure that this is set

network.proxy.socks_remote_dns = true

Hotels want to know EVERYTHING

[AndSheWas]

I work for a certain hotel company, I'm the person who you get when you call to make a reservation. If you have any kind of identifying profile or number, then you're activity is being tracked. Whether you stayed on business or pleasure, who you're companion was, what floor you like, how many beds, on what occasion you decided to stay at the hotel...any information i can gather about you, i am paid to gather. We use an integrated soft phone that is linked with our reservations system. I know what number you are calling from. If you have stayed with us before, chances are you have a profile, and i have your address, credit card number, and possibly how many kids you have. The hotels want your business so badly, they want to REALLY get to know you, and have your favorite flower on the bed when you come in, or if you know the concierge well enough, your favorite escort. So if you want to keep you're personal info "secret", don't earn points towards that free stay, and don't get a profile number. We get paid extra for making these profiles, so watch out for people just making you one, without your expressed consent. It happens all of the time. i watch it happen everyday. I'm looking for a new job.

In soviet Russia...

[Zaatxe]

Hotel Connectivity Provider SuperClick Tracks You!

Oh, wait...

OpenVPN uses SSL

[SIGBUS]

Note that OpenVPN can be set up to use a TCP connection instead of a UDP connection, and it uses SSL. No need for weird things like GRE that might not make it through.

You could always put OpenVPN on a port other than 1194 if you think you might run into port blocking, too.

Re:OpenVPN uses SSL

[josecanuc]

On a related note: Does anyone know of any off-the-shelf router/NAT device that supports OpenVPN tunnels?

My company does 4-5 day jobs at convention centers, etc. and we currently use IPSEC with an off-the-shelf "VPN Router" product to tunnel back to our office network for access to fileshares and database data. Often, it is difficult and/or expensive to get hotel and convention center folks to give us a public IP address and they won't do port forwarding, etc.

I would love to have a box I can set up that will make an outgoing (from the conv. center) SSL TCP connection to the office and tunnel all VPN traffic through that, but I don't (for various reasons) want to run this tunnel on "yet another PC" that we have to carry with us.

I suspect that I'll end up having to either build a mini-atx-style or other embedded-type system to do this with OpenVPN, but it would be great if there was a commercial device that did this just like the so-called "VPN Routers" out there.

I work for a competing pay to use service.

[blanks]

For the last 3 years I have worked for another pay to use wireless service.  I won't say the name but we supply most of the wireless service in Hiltons, Radisons and Embassy suites in the united states.

Thankfully it sounds like they are not even trying to lie about what is happening, and are say they are trying to push advertisements to their wireless users so I don't need to explain why they wouldn't be using a proxey.

After a user authenticates at a location there is no need for any of this redirecting per page every time a user tries going to a different site.  Any good wireless gateway (and many bad ones) simply track each user using a session assigned to their mac address on the gateway, Nothing needs to be done to track service usage as long as they are active.

The only reason (and I don't know why they haven't been using this as the excuse) is to be able to claim monitoring illegal web usage such as kiddy porn or illegal music downloads.  We had a few places claim they needed to be able to track this, but we dropped them instead of willingly tracking users for a b.s. reason.

This is just another case where a company that is charging for a service are trying to make even more money doing secretive and underhanded business practices.