Steve Bosak, newsfactor
Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is an enterprise security technique for examining the Layer 2 through Layer 7 segments of IP data packets. This "packet snooping" was developed to better guard against malicious software, worms or erroneous data that may be embedded in IP packets by hackers or other unauthorized network users. But the same techniques applied for the good of network security can also be deployed to track an individual's Web activity.
Congress wants to know who is using DPI and how they are using it. The larger question is, of course, are individual rights being violated when DPI is used by networks?
Search engine companies in particular may depend heavily on DPI or variations thereof to provide more targeted ads to customers using their sites. In addition, large copyright holders such as Sony, EMI and Time Warner have sued Internet service providers that they believe have not done enough to halt the illicit trafficking of music, movies and videos. They argue that DPI can detect and block such piracy.
Also at stake is what companies do with collected data on a long-term basis: The Committee letter asks if data is routinely destroyed and if data is cross-referenced across multiple Web applications for tailoring advertising. It is not clear if answering the questions in detail would entail revealing proprietary intellectual property information on the part of the queried companies.
Privacy vs. Piracy?
Congress also wants to know if the companies have performed legal analysis regarding their targeting practices to determine whether they have violated individual privacy rights. This question in particular is perhaps the meat of the inquiry: Are current privacy laws being violated, and if not, does new legislation need to be enacted?
While using DPI and other forensic Web-activity monitoring can stop piracy, it may also infringe on individual privacy rights. In the past, Microsoft and Google, for example, have maintained they thoroughly strip personal information from such data and keep it separate from account information.
According to a spokesperson for the Committee, "The Committee intends to look closely at how these companies collect data on consumers' Internet usage and looks forward to reviewing the companies' responses. The Committee will continue to examine the legal and privacy issues raised by these practices."
The Committee's letter was sent to more than 20 companies, including AOL, AT&T, Comcast, EarthLink, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
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