Analysis: The Murky World Of Deep Packet Inspection

[p2p rules]

Three words, "Deep Packet Inspection," strike fear into the hearts of privacy advocates and net neutrality supporters alike.

Using DPI on your network is something of a double-edged sword: on the one hand, the technology allows for fine-grained control over network data flows and can boost security as well as prioritise services or even create new ones.

However, DPI can also block certain data deemed undesirable and even modify it for purposes such as censorship, copyright monitoring and enforcement, and intrusive marketing and advertising.

ISPs tend to keep quiet about their use of DPI on their networks so as not to raise users' hackles and to avoid thorny legal issues on whether or not such packet peeking amounts to wiretapping.

In other words, DPI remains a controversial technology that has the potential to do good but also carries the risk of turning customers away.

itnews.com.au