'Today' considers data retention and IMP

[Richard Clayton]

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In article <op.unnfylle6hl8nm@clerew.man.ac.uk>, Charles Lindsey
<chl@clerew.man.ac.uk> writes

>On Mon, 12 Jan 2009 11:42:57 -0000, Igor Mozolevsky  
><igor@hybrid-lab.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> The reason why I made that assumption is that our DNS server is fed
>> from the root servers, not ISP's DNS servers, so I don't see how you
>> can fake a geo-aware response, unless there's someone running a DNS
>> query interception, or Google's DNS servers reply differently based on
>> the source address of the packet, which I would imagine would be very
>> expensive. L4 diversion switches (what CDNs use) are not the same as
>> geo-aware DNS responses, but that doesn't get us any closer to where
>> one's data actually lives.
>
>I had always supposed that the IP routing tables were so fixed that if I  
>accessed a given IP from within the UK, the packets would go to a  
>different physical place that if the same IP were accessed from within the  
>US.

Depends on the CDN (BTW: the top level DNS servers use anycast)

>For sure, I have noted that when I access google.com, it somehow manages  
>to serve me with adverts for UK suppliers, 

That's a behaviour that many servers achieve all on their own...

... or at least the advert server does (which may be somewhere else than
the server creating the editorial matter  --  heading back on topic
here; the IWF say that some of the sites they visit serve pictures from
multiple locations, none of which is in the same country as the server
that one might naively describe as "hosting the illegal website").

>and also frequently end up  
>finding that I am speaking to google.co.uk.

... and that behaviour is governed by Google's cookies as much as
anything else...

- -- 
richard                                              Richard Clayton

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.         Benjamin Franklin

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