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Will ISPs Be Driven To Spy On Their Customers?

Posted by timothy on from the won't-be-a-long-drive dept.

bs0d3 writes "In regards to the new 'voluntary' graduated response deal (where no one really knows how ISPs will track and accuse customers of copyright infringement), according to CNN, it may be the ISP directly spying on their customers. 'But now that they're free from individual blame, there's also the strong possibility that the ISPs will be doing the data monitoring directly. That's a much bigger deal. So instead of reaching out to the Internet to track down illegally flowing bits of their movies, the studios will sit back while ISP's "sniff" the packets of data coming to and from their customers' computers.' This could be a problem for people who use U.S.-based internet services. If the U.S. wants to be an internet savvy country, they still need the competition in the marketplace that's always been missing, and a digital bill of rights that isn't a sneaky anti-piracy measure."

4 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. You mean they don't do it already? by stanlyb · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Really? Anyone? Really believes that the ISP are protecting you? Your privacy? With claws and fangs?

    1. Re:You mean they don't do it already? by ATMAvatar · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I don't think anyone believed that many (if any) ISPs were fighting the good fight, as it were. The assumption was more that ISPs are typical businesses, which do not incur costs unless required to do so. Setting up infrastructure and staff to monitor subscriber traffic costs money and effort. Without some well-defined, monetary gain in doing so, ISPs simply won't bother.

      So to answer your title - no, most ISPs probably haven't monitored traffic already, because it was a waste of time and resources to do so.

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
  2. Re:The US is not a free market by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Which is why the physical infrastructure should be nationalized and leased by the government to private businesses who must then compete with each other. This would lower the barriers to entry and open up competition. And laying all that fiber will create a lot of jobs too.

    --
    If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  3. Re:The US is not a free market by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "Once one ISP has an area cabled up, it's no longer financially viable for another to move in."

    That's why some smart communities have decided to let the city or county build the cable infrastructure, using tax dollars. Then they rent the infrastructure to data providers.

    Not only do they save money, they are not subject to coercion by monopolies.