Conversations are overheard and recorded. Email is intercepted and read. Someone poses as a friend in order to obtain details about you.
All of these examples depict an intermediary invading or undermining a basic form of communication, violating an implicit trust in the process.
Unfortunately, Internet service providers have triggered an ongoing flap about deep packet inspection (DPI) over just this kind of activity.
DPI, which identifies and filters packetized data according to its payload as well as its header, is gaining in use. There are machines like the Procera PacketLogic PL 10000 that can track the online sessions of millions of Netizens. There are vendors with (luckily for opponents) ominous names like NebuAd Inc. and Phorm that have conducted (or plan to conduct) tests of “behavioral advertising” in conjunction with ISPs -- tracking all online user activities in the process.
The technical details of marketing efforts deploying DPI may be fascinating -- just how does Phorm pretend to be the Website you thought you were visiting? -- but the implications are deeply troubling to a lot of people.
The DPI tussle has triggered Congressional interest and has launched a general uproar that will likely be with us for a long time.
Internet engineer David Reed has testified before Congress that DPI technologies violate longstanding Internet standards and pose risks to consumers. The Center for Democracy & Technology has stated that DPI systems may threaten consumers' trust that their online communications will be delivered without interference. The group says the use of these systems likely violates many state and U.S. federal laws, including laws prohibiting wiretapping and barring cable operators from using consumer data inappropriately.
ISPs have a range of claims on their side of the argument, including:
Web services like Google deploy DPI-like techniques, so why shouldn't ISPs use them, too?
They need to manage their networks to avoid congestion, and DPI provides helpful tools.
ISPs need the revenue they get from DPI-based marketing in order to provide better services.
DPI tools can be used in the ongoing fight against spam and viruses; it is fundamental for security, content-based billing, and all other important applications.
My own view is that we’ve lost track of the foundation of communications law: the idea that carriers have a duty to serve their market in a nondiscriminatory fashion, instead of leveraging their position as providers of basic transport for use in other ways.
If we take that idea seriously -- and it appears that some constituents are doing just that -- it also forces the question of whether carriers whose business it is to get us online are really entitled to discriminate against particular types of data.
DPI isn't for marketing use. I hope we’ll see real movement toward basic, nondiscriminatory transport under a new presidential administration next year.
— Susan Crawford, visiting professor at Yale Law School, teaches Internet law and communications law
Hi jwallace, Oh I see your point, and can sympathize, because not every innovation or company is going to be successful. But I would rather have the choice to move to another provider, another bank, another cell plan or another broadcast/satellite medium as I choose, not to have one chosen for me.
Over regulation stifles innovation and choice, and under regulation (is there such a thing, really) means some companies fail when they don't meet their customers (changing) requirements or fail to execute their business properly.
Because we can share information so freely, a typical consumer can browse opinion and fact to make choices about their providers. If you detest your land line provider or find out your ISP is gathering too much information about your habits - in many cases you have a choice to move to another provider. Or, use the political process to pressure your lawmakers to protect your interests.
I like the free market approach even when there is some pain from disruptions - over the long haul I think we all benefit.
I would like to share here the events that is happening across india dealing with the encryption level..... The higher the encryption....higher the woes for the government which is keen to manage the Terrorist activities across the region...... But the Vendor has the say mentioning about the security about they offer to thier CUSTOMERS...... The DPI can't be applied..... Cross Fingers....
I currently see the ILECs and utility companies as the same species
except one has spots and the other has stripes. Oh, one is a carnivore
and the other is an omnivore that gets to eat everything and wants what
others have, gets it and doesn't know what to do with it.
"we have more players trying to provide a better overall experience for the customer"
Mark, I would be delighted if you can provide(few) 'working examples' of this with links. ;-)
It would be greatly appreciated.
Competition - Ha, where are all the CLECs that were around in 2000? Can we get Robert Knowling former CEO of Covad to give us his opinion? I find it to be an imperfect competition oligopoly gumbo(the kind you don't want to go for a second helping).
I'm only complaining with assumption that it can be improved.
Lynngi said "If we want the same underlying assumptions about telephone utilities to apply to all ISPs (regardless of how they deliver the service), then we have to make them function as utilities. Are we ready/willing to do that?"
Not ready and not willing to give up the free market approach at this time. When we unshackled the utilities and allowed the private sector to play in the utilities sandbox, we opened both sides to innovation. Which resulted not in dividing the pie more equally, but increasing the size of the pie for all. And more "flavor" choices for every consumer.
Because we have competition, we have more players trying to provide a better overall experience for the customer - and the customer wins. The number of eyes watching every move, and voicing concern when appropriate, is just one check on overstepping bounds... even the small players are keeping a close ear on the "Voice Of the Customer" (to borrow a Six Sigma phrase) and monitoring the day to day if not hour to hour effects of their actions on the bottom line.
"My own view is that we’ve lost track of the foundation of communications law: the idea that carriers have a duty to serve their market in a nondiscriminatory fashion, instead of leveraging their position as providers of basic transport for use in other ways."
But communications law was originally intended for phone companies, and they operated as utilities, not as private enterprises. One of the most significant issue in the entire "net neutrality" debate is that, due to the break-up of Ma Bell, communications' companies are NOT utilities anymore, and the cable/satellite companies in particular never were.
If we want the same underlying assumptions about telephone utilities to apply to all ISPs (regardless of how they deliver the service), then we have to make them function as utilities. Are we ready/willing to do that?
Thinking about tracking and reporting the simplest issues of Carriers/ISPs is so frustrating that I can't even put it into words. If it's that retarded at the simple level such as usability outside of their main purpose(I'm naming Dish Network-BellSouth, Comcast and TWC), I can only imagine how much more amplified it is at the Top. Not to mention, they only pretend to 'hear' customer's woes and suggestions. Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack STEAMROLLED over the candlestick.
"ISPs need the revenue they get from DPI-based marketing in order to provide better services."
How about provide better services and generate more revenue? I don't mean minimizing downtime (as I am currently very satisfied with the reliability). I'm referring to user interface/usability and services offered.
"forget about selling music downloads and such nonsence."
Have you tried using roadrunner music? It's worse than listening to a scratched record or a skipping cd. Carriers seem(C.Y.A.) to be like a bully on a playground - Big and Stupid.
OPENING UP A SIMPLE LAST DECADE FORUM AND CONNECTING WITH CUSTOMER'S ISSUES would do a HECK of a lot for which ever company they outsource to BRING THEIR.....
I agree with you 100%- Carriers need to stick to the knitting and forget about selling music downloads and such nonsence.
The use of DPI and similar techniques for say SPAM reduiction is one thing- but to 'profile' behavior and 'sell' stuff- wow, that is off the chart nasty.
DPI isn't for marketing use. I hope
we’ll see real movement toward basic, nondiscriminatory transport under
a new presidential administration next year
I don't think that this has anything to do with presidential administration. Carriers cannot allow everything to pass through their network without regulation. And they will give thousands of reasons why they are doing so. I favour net neutrality, and we should fight for it. But it will be naive to think that carriers will always serve the "market in a nondiscriminatory fashion".
and one that deserves much attention and thought. Since day one, the folks who constitute the not so savory side of net have sought ways to use our data invasively. To me it does not matter whether your the Federal Government or Joe Shmoe marketing exec. What does matter is it's not right, at least not to me. The downside is more spam, more ad's and more people knowing more about what we do, and in the case of those less educated in such matters, folks who have no idea what is being sucked from their personal data streams. The upside is that it will make more people aware of the practice and in turn may be able to stop it or greatly reduce it before it gains a foothold, or it will help open up a new I.S. job market for applications vendors and developers.In closing I agree with what RMaverick69 says and I paraphrase since I don't have it right in front of me, never do or say anything on the internet or web that you don't want someone to know about. And may I add this which also goes along with what I was told a long time ago by a close friend. Never PO your Network Admin, they know every thing about you, every thing.
Once upon a time the science fiction community wrote vast tomes of literary hypothesis concerning the very issues were are now faced with. The vernacular and acronyms are different, but the story is the same. We can take this "Big Brother" type scenario to many different levels, but the end result is the same. Somebody is watching us and knows whatever we decide to do, say, log, post, etc on the web, phone and more! Almost everything you do is tied to some sort of database and most are linked or being linked creating impersonal profiles for whatever reason is mandated by the sovereign powers that be. DPI, Digital Angels, social networks, personal web pages, consumer credit reports, MIB stats, and whatever other info we divulge is compiled, correlated, cross-referenced in the name of more targeted marketing, customized information feeds (RSS), so-on and so-forth. Where does it stop and to what degree are our rights and privacy being violated in the name of better service, instant gratification and better living through modern technology. Controversy? I say nay...........Seems more like regulatory control and personal intrusion. As I was told in the early days of the Internet by a Big Blue Guru, "Never do anything on the Internet you don't want to share with the whole world." Nuff' said!
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Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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