Here at the Lounge, we have been talking for years about how broadband providers have manipulated our bandwidth to increase profits on their content side. How ISP’s use Deep Packet Inspection for the sale of statistical information based on a customers use of the bandwidth, and how DPI and E-Mail manipulation are our number one privacy concern. We have talked quite often about the need for more competition in the broadband market and how in competitive markets, ISPs act much more pro-consumer. We talked about how in markets that do lack competition, the cable industry has flooded State and Local government with FUD and untold $$millions while lobbying for regulations that stifle competition and innovation.

In reality, the Money Grubbing  Internet Service Providers should be required to provide non discriminatory internet access, guaranteed speed and data access, and to be free from anti-competitive abuses and practices.

Little does anyone remember, but back in the early 1990′s, there was an outcry from internet users across the country over a perceived notion that the  telephone companies were doing everything in their power to disrupt the use of dial-up modems on their networks. In essence, the discussion today is just an extension of that from 20 years ago. We need Dumb Pipes.

First we must insist that is that the owner of the plumbing should not care what the plumbing is used for or who uses it. This means that just because you are the local cable company, you cannot discriminate in how your Internet service is priced to benefit your other businesses. Streaming a 3 gig movie should not, for example, be more expensive than streaming the same amount of data from a cable branded stream.That is the current business model for all of the Major Internet Service Providers

DPI issues would also be addressed. Deep Packet Inspection is a form of computer network packet filtering that examines the data part of a packet as it passes an inspection point, searching for  predefined criteria to decide if the packet can pass or if it needs to be routed to a different destination. This is how they track your every move. They also can set up programs to look for anything in your e-mail, or watch your every click. ISP’s make $$$Millions of dollars selling your click history. We need to insist that these ISP’s de-monetize the data, or at the least, pay us for it.

The carriers very much want the FCC to stay as far away as possible from the network neutrality debate. And if their actions are any indication, they are trying very hard to push through as much change before the government steps in. In proposing what looked like Internet pricing intended to ward off competition to its cable TV business, Time Warner set off  a shit storm of criticism. After seeing this particular danger lurking, Time Warner bailed on the new pricing. This was a direct result of the potential for increased oversight, not because the average customer would pay much higher prices. Either way, everyone must understand that laws are needed now. Once these pricing plans go live, there will be no turning back.

In closing, there is simply was no reasonable justification for the per-gigabyte pricing that the Internet Service Providers are proposing. I cannot imagine a situation in which a gigabyte of Internet data should cost $1 from the cable company, when it costs them about 3 cents to produce in a non-competitive market.

I strongly believe that Internet companies should provide either access or content, but not both. Verizon should not discriminate against Yahoo because it has a deal with Google. The Internet carrier should handle traffic for both companies equally, for the simple reason the consumer often often has only one broadband provider to choose from in most parts of the nation.

I believe Deep Packet Inspection for network management and  e-mail is the single biggest privacy concern on the internet today, much like the post office searching every letter sent for a note from Kendal Meyers. We need to insist that these ISP’s de-monetize the data, or at the least, pay us for it

There is a very big discussion concerning your right to privacy in the Electronic Age, and the average American has no clue they are even being watched.  Here are a couple of issues at hand.

Representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.

and

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress.

Filtering content?

Well for starters, every time you send an e-mail, attach a file, or request a page or content on the internet, you do it through your ISP. ISP’s like Cablevision or Verizon provide you with access to the net. You pay to use the servers.  Filtering searches for bits of code. Like a ‘copyright’. Or in the case of the NSA, an algorithm is used to find the unusual. It reads and interprets them. Copyright holders will pay big bucks to let ISP’s look for their content. The Feds will subpoena for it, and in the end, every e-mail, attachment or file will be read.

What could that possible mean to me?

Its exactly like the post office opening each and every letter looking for a copyrighted picture or a tape, or a note to Kendall Myers.  If the ISP’s ’find’ a problem, they may refuse to send it. Or they may invoke a TOS case. Or they may rat you out unless you get sanitized.

Some people feel filtering is a conspiracy; a way for ISP’s to monetize their monopoly position via a racket. Ooops, our filters caught too much Twitter traffic today, and since Twitter is not our partner, were going to slow down or deny page loads. Oops, you didn’t pay a premium, you can’t embed pictures in your e-mail. You can do these things on the fly if you monitor every packet.

Someone checking each and every file on the internet in hopes of finding someone who MAY be trading a copyrighted file or is involved in a terrorist act would be invasive, to say the least. We better make it the law that at the minimum, filtering of data must be an approved act, subject to the same principals as snail mail, and we better do it soon.

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress.

Under the surveillance program, before the N.S.A. can target and monitor the e-mail messages or telephone calls of Americans suspected of having links to international terrorism, it must get permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Supporters of the agency say that in using computers to sweep up millions of electronic messages, it is unavoidable that some innocent discussions of Americans will be examined. Intelligence operators are supposed to filter those out, but critics say the agency is not rigorous enough in doing so.

The rising concern among some members of Congress about the N.S.A.’s recent operation are raising fresh questions about the spy agency. All we can do is implore our local Representatives to control who can open and read our e-mail. Laws need to be written to protect our privacy, and they need to be written now.

The FCC approved a proposal to open the unused broadcast television airwaves for unlicensed applications today, a move we have advocated here at The Lounge for years. The decision on The White Space today will no doubt in our mind be one of the most important steps we can make. It allows, among many other things, an avenue for broadband penetration to area’s usually not serviced by major ISP’s.

Even though the benefits of the White Space are numerous, also today the FCC has loosened rules concerning vacant fiber cable that effectively allows the local communities to provide a no to low cost internet option to students and other community members who would otherwise be unable to access service.

We will keep updated as more information becomes available on this great new technology.