Dutch Provider KPN Under Fire Over DPI

An anonymous reader writes "After Dutch internet/mobile provider KPN announced they were going to blatantly do away with the idea of net-neutrality by charging their customers for using text message replacements (such as WhatsApp) to make up for diminishing use of traditional text-messaging, it has now been revealed that they have apparently employed deep packet inspection (DPI) to monitor customers' use of WhatsApp (and also VoIP services) — which happens to be illegal in the Netherlands. Many national news outlets are now finally reporting on the issue. Some doubts exists on whether it was actually DPI that was used to measure WhatsApp use (and not just IP/TCP header inspection), while some KPN insiders suggested it is actually an outsourced operation run by Alcatel-Lucent." Update: 05/13 20:26 GMT by S : The Dutch equivalent of the EFF has recommended that users report this to the police, and explained how to go about doing so (Google translation of Dutch original).

Comments

Re:Simple

[ControlFreal]

Nah, it does became apparent that the second provider (Vodafone) also does DPI ( http://tweakers.net/nieuws/74441/ook-vodafone-geeft-gebruik-dpi-toe.html - Dutch). There are 2 other providers, which have basically not been caught using DPI yet, I am afraid.

Drop & Encrypt

[Anonymous Coward]

Do the Dutch not have as many choices as everyone else? My first instinct would be to drop them and go with another company. When they ask why specify exactly why. Suing them to stop the ordeal just feeds money to the lawyers, who will continue to advise them ahead of time that its a Good Idea

Secondly, communications apps really need to start taking encryption seriously. The fact that any intermediate party knows anything about your communications other than where they need to route it always resorts to problems. Save us all the hassle, please.

Re:Drop & Encrypt

[Meph0]

There are three physical networks in the Netherlands. KPN, Vodafone and T-Mobile. The first two have admitted to using DPI (or SPI), some form of PI at least. Then there's the 50 operators who use those three networks to offer their servers, but it's unclear whether KPN uses DPI on their traffic as well (it's their network of course). Another problem: KPN and Vodafone have a good network (speed and coverage), while T-Mobile's sucks. So it's either sucky coverage or DPI as it stands now. In a few weeks, DPI probably won't be used because of all the media attention. Problem solved.

I'm old.

[MarkvW]

I read DPI and thought dots per inch.

Re:I'm old.

[Lodewijk]

I'm 31, Dutch, and when I read KPN, I think of Khan Process Networks. KPN should have gone bankrupt about ten years ago. They are the old state telecommunications company, and twenty years after privatization they still rank among the most evil ISP's, and they seem to get worse every week.

I remember them blocking all incoming and outgoing traffic to port 25 without prior notice, even on business DSL lines. I remember them illegaly refusing colocation to competing ISP's on their state-built infrastructure, expoiting their monopoly to suppress competition. I remember them refusing to release domainnames I registered by them, because they said they now owned the domain... I remember them selling expensive DSL lines with more than 1:200 overbooking, resulting in oversaturated dog-slow connections any time a day, then bullying complaining customers.... That kind of things. and now DPI.

Re:Simple

[paziek]

After they break into your house, you also operate by this simple advice of yours and switch homes?

Dutch government mandates DPI from all ISPs

[Anonymous Coward]

All Dutch (and European?) ISPs are required by law to retain e-mail headers and URLs accessed for a number of years (anti-terrorism, anti-pedophiles, the usual reasons), which I think is only possible with DPI, so I suppose all Dutch ISPs are doing DPI, in a far more intrusive way than KPN and Vodafone are using it for their own interests. I'm sad that it is only now that people are suddenly outraged, but I guess its better than nothing at all. I'm far more concerned about KPN trying to make a profit from other people's services (WhatsApp) just because people are realizing traditional text-messaging sucks balls.

Re:Dutch government mandates DPI from all ISPs

[Dr_Barnowl]

The URLs are possible to retain if you run a transparent proxy (which most ISPs seem to do these days). The email headers, that probably refers to headers on mails transmitted via their SMTP relays. Neither of these requires DPI, and it would be a more expensive way of acquiring this data.

Re:I love hating as much as the next guy...

[s73v3r]

Read the Fine Summary. It is illegal in the Netherlands.

And I take issue with your idea that banning DPI for the purposes of violating Net Neutrality is bad for consumers. I think it's great for consumers, as it greatly increases competition for those services. Without it, the ISP knows that you can only really use their SMS and VoIP solutions, so there's no incentive to price them competitively or to keep innovating them.

Re:I love hating as much as the next guy...

[gstoddart]

...but in this case KPN is actually fully authorized to do that (unless DPI is illegal in the Netherlands). After all, the customers who are hit with the extra costs are actually doing something illegal, and they could just as well be brought to court or otherwise penalized in some much worse way.

Ummm ... what exactly are the people doing that is 'illegal'??

Reading the linked articles, it would seem that people are using their data plan to provide an IM alternative to SMS, as well as to provide VoIP ... are either of these things illegal? Or just not making profit for the company? (Boo hoo, you used our network bandwidth we sold to you for something we'd normally charge you for ... so we're going to charge you anyway.)

If you're selling me access to the internet, you don't get to decide which sites I visit. You certainly (so far) don't get to decide to charge me $5/month for Slashdot or Google.

What, exactly are the users doing that is 'illegal' ... I'm not getting that from any of the articles. The only thing that I see that is illegal is that it might be a violation of Dutch law for KPN to use DPI ... which is precisely what the articles say.

It isn't the customers of KPN who are breaking the law.

Finally Proper coverage

[Bob the Super Hamste]

As one of the sources for this is the Wall Street Journal maybe net neutrality issues are finally getting proper coverage, instead of the Rush Limbaugh style of this is the "fairness doctrine" coverage it has gotten in the past.

actually, the new acronym for DPI is TPM

[Chirs]

The equipment vendors are aware that "deep packet inspection" has negative connotations, and at least some of them are now using the term "traffic and policy management" or TPM.

Doesn't that sound nice and innocuous?