Hi, I’m moving into an apartment soon and the landlord has offered me full internet coverage. Meaning they will be paying the monthly bill and controlling the ISP account, while acquiring and setting up the modem + router would be my responsibility. I was curious to what extent is privacy relinquished by doing this, versus managing the internet on your own? Do ISP accounts allow for unique controls, monitoring, etc.? Don’t have much experience with things relating to internet setup, so I’m just trying to gain a bit of understanding before proceeding. Any input is appreciated.
Welcome to the forum!
I don’t think this is a big problem since you have the freedom to bring in your own modem and router so you can still have full control over your network. Your ISP and landlord however will know how much data you’re consuming and at what rate since they can monitor the account if they wanted to.
So, if you’re okay with this metadata about you being known, then you’re fine. I’m already assuming you’re okay with the internet plan and other details associated with it if you’re considering this. I don’t think there’s anything more your landlord can know beyond this since only your devices are going to be connected to it.
If you’re getting a new router, depending on how tech savvy you are and if you even need this level of flexibility, I highly recommend the Banana Pi OpenWRT Router. It runs open source software and gives you a lot of options to manage or configure your network as you want it.
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I wouldn’t be to concerned from a privacy perspective since you will be in control of the modem and router. I would be concerned about it from a cost and flexibility standpoint though. Typically landlords are not in the business of doing their tenants favors. If they are offering this, its because its a benefit to them.
Verify the details with your landlord what they will charge you vs what you could get by handling the ISP account yourself. Since you are already responsible for getting the modem / router its not like the landlord is doing much for you. Make sure they are sending you copies of the ISPs invoice if your landlord is going to bill you separately.
Also see what kind of internet plan they plan to purchase and what your options will be to change it, if your needs change.
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This is a massive risk from the landlord’s perspective (I expect they don’t realize that) and a cost they can pass along and inflate. I expect you’ll end up paying a disproportionate amount of the monthly bill. If you ran a torrent empire on this connection, the landlord would be the person getting nastygrams from the FCC.
My guess would be the landlord will run an ethernet cable from your router to their modem. If they’re talking about connecting direct to a fiber line, maybe they’re talking about collecting bills for the property, which seems more like a cost inflation thing alone, but the account would still be under the landlord’s name. Either way, if the landlord controls the account, they can reasonably control or see some aspects of the account, it depends on the ISP and location.
Neither is a deal breaker, I would be fine with this if protected by a VPN.
If it’s router connected via ethernet cable, I would get a VPN and run it at the router level so everything you do is encrypted. Sure, it’s an added cost, but absolutely worth it IMO. If it’s a fiber modem, I would get that, then VPNs on your devices or a router-level VPN as well.
Or, just do your own connection if you don’t mind waiting for the installer to come between 1000 and 1600 3 weeks from now. But I would still do a VPN anyway.
If the provider is Xfinity, I can confirm as an employee that your data is treated as if it was your account, because the account would still be in your name. The landlord just controls the billing of the included services. Of course if you decide you want faster Internet than what the landlord provides, you would pay the difference to Xfinity.
If it’s a different provider I don’t have an answer for you since every company is different.