ISPs Using "Deep Packet Inspection" on 100,000 Users
Found on Slashdot on Friday, 04 April 2008
Some Internet Service Providers (ISP) have been using deep-packet inspection to spy on the communications of more than 100,000 US customers. Deep packet inspection allows the ISP to read the content of communications including every Web page visited, every e-mail sent and every search entered, in short every click and keystroke that comes down the line. The companies involved assert that customers' privacy is protected because no personally identifying details are released, but they make money from advertisers who use the information to target their online pitches.
Goodbye trust, hello encryption. It would be interesting to know if this is legal at all. Basically it's as if the postman reads your letters and tells everybody about what you send and receive, just without mentioning your name. They should ask AOL about "no personally identifying details"; they released a list of search queries where the usernames had been replaced with numbers. However, it turned out that it was possible to find out who was behind some of those numbers, thanks to the content of the queries. So much for privacy.