Released: April 24, 2009

Congress begins deep packet inspection of ISPs

Source: Saul Hansell, NY Times (Free Registration)

Congress picked up its look at online privacy where it left off last year: whether Internet providers can look at where customers surf online.

Angry comments by members of Congress at several hearings last year were enough to get several Internet providers to drop plans to to show Internet users ads based on where they surf.

On Thursday, a House subcommittee asked whether the practice needs to be outlawed. The technology behind this, called deep packet inspection, raised the ire of Representative Rick Boucher, the Democrat from Virginia who chairs the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet.

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