Internet Providers' New Tool Raises Deep Privacy Concerns

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: August 21, 2008 6:35:23 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Internet Providers' New Tool Raises Deep  
Privacy Concerns

INTERNET PROVIDERS' NEW TOOL RAISES DEEP PRIVACY CONCERNS

If deep packet inspection lives up to its promises, it might yield a  
cash benefit. Internet providers using this technology could afford to  
offer customers a deal: Accept this scrutiny, and we'll knock $10 a  
month off your bill. But systems such as deep packet inspection  
unnerve a lot of Internet users for sound reasons. One is, of course,  
the immensely greater surveillance they allow. Another concern is the  
difficulty of circumventing this constant tracking. A third concern is  
the lack of competition for broadband service in much of the United  
States -- if your provider sets up deep packet inspection, you may not  
be able to protest by taking your business elsewhere. But the worst  
aspect of this kind of "augmented" or "enhanced tracking" (pick a  
euphemism) is how badly and in how many ways it could fail. What if a  
wrongly configured system records more data than intended?

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/20/AR2008082003259.html 
>

Courtesy of the Benton Foundation <http://www.benton.org>
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