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Study Confirms ISPs Meddle With Web Traffic

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-wouldn't-like-me-when-i'm-angry dept.

Last July, a research team from the University of Washington released an online tool to analyze whether web pages were being altered during the transit from web server to user. On Wednesday, the team released a paper at the Usenix conference analyzing the data collected from the tool. The found, unsurprisingly, that ISPs were indeed injecting ads into web pages viewed by a small number of users. The paper is available at the Usenix site. From PCWorld: "To get their data, the team wrote software that would test whether or not someone visiting a test page on the University of Washington's Web site was viewing HTML that had been altered in transit. In 16 instances ads were injected into the Web page by the visitor's Internet Service provider. The service providers named by the researchers are generally small ISPs such as RedMoon, Mesa Networks and MetroFi, but the paper also named one of the largest ISPs in the U.S., XO Communications, as an ad injector."

4 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Cant see the story... by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

    All I see is "Local ISPs cure cancer. All hail SBC!"

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    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
  2. Re:Clearly it's the Commies! by magicchex · · Score: 3, Funny

    Commies as in Comcast?

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    How many fulltime jobs can one man have?
  3. Re:Clearly it's the Commies! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Now that you mention it, I do remember an ad asking for my "bodily fluids"

  4. Re:Clearly it's the Commies! by devnullkac · · Score: 2, Funny

    Commies as in common carriers.

    --
    What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!