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Tool Detects "In-Flight" Webpage Alterations
TheWoozle writes "In a follow-up to a recent story about ISPs inserting ads into web pages, the University of Washington security and privacy research group has teamed with the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) to develop an online tool to help you identify if your ISP is inserting ads or otherwise modifying the web pages you request."
I understand the first knee jerk reaction people have with the concept of ISPs sticking ads on content. Kind of a NIMBY thing. However if you think about it, people have been making money out of other people's content for a long time in the Internet. What's a search engine really but a way to generate ad revenue by organizing other people's content? This reminds me of when content providers were complaining that search engines' tactics of deep indexing their sites was allowing the users to bypass their home pages (where the ads were hosted). I understand why ISPs are going to be moving in this direction. Just compare the market valuations of the big 'Internet' plays with those of the large ISPs. Why should Google's market cap. be 158.38B and Comcast's 88.20B? Google and other companies like it honestly have done very little but leech off of other people's content (Search, News, Groups, Images, Videos, etc.). Their business model is to provide ads. (content providers: where is the outrage here?). What type of company would you miss more if it were to disappear tomorrow (search engine vs last mile ISP)? Comcast and the other providers in comparison have made a massive investment in infrastructure that they have to both innovate and maintain. Look at Verizon and FIOS as an example. Do you see Google spending B's to roll out fiber? To some degree they have been left out. They are are in an industry where their product has become a commodity where people make decisions largely based on price. These technologies give these companies an opportunity to change the nature of the game. Sure its greedy, that's capitalism, but its not evil. Nor is it illegal if done properly. Its an agreement between two parties, one the provider, the other the consumer who wants a FREE/cheap (cost) Internet. If you want 'free' Internet you are going to have to pay for it somehow. Either through the government through taxes, or though something like ads. Personally I prefer the ads, if I do not like them I can pay (time or $$) for the option to not have them.