[IP] ISP Wiretapping: FCC, FTC, and Congress Need to Act Now!

         ISP Wiretapping: FCC, FTC, and Congress Need to Act Now!

               http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000383.html

Greetings. Charter Communications has now announced
( http://tinyurl.com/4ggphq ) that they intend to "wiretap" (that's
the only appropriate term I can think of) subscribers' Internet
Communications, and use the search data obtained in this manner to
inject Charter's own targeted advertising into user data streams.

I believe that the "wait and see" timeout period on these abuses of
DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) technology has now expired, and we now
need to look to the FCC, FTC, and Congress for immediate actions to
protect ISP subscribers' privacy rights, and both the privacy and
business rights of the Internet services with whom those users
communicate.

Charter's plans seem very much in line with both the Rogers Cable
data insertion system ( "Google Hijacked -- Major ISP to Intercept
and Modify Web Pages" -- http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000337.html )
and the UK "Phorm" system ( "UK ISPs to Spy on Google Users (and Others)" --
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000375.html ), both of which I've
discussed previously at some length.

As I've noted, the use of content monitoring systems by ISPs on
other than a purely opt-in basis is nothing short of wiretapping (in
a practical sense that we all can understand, legal loopholes
notwithstanding). It is monitoring of communications between users
and Internet services, and all of the touted anonymization claims
and awkward opt-out cookies don't amount to a hill of beans.

This class of threats to privacy and business interests may have
been "merely" theoretical before, but now is concrete and real.

Users can in some cases take their own protective steps by
encrypting their communications whenever possible ( "Toward Pervasive
Internet Encryption: Unshackling the Self-Signed Certificate" --
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000339.html ).

But now is the time for our legislators and regulators to earn their
salaries, and make it clear that ISPs are supposed to be carriers of
communications, not spying on, tracking, and modifying subscriber
communications for their own gains.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
  - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
  - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

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