The End of the Internet?

The End of the Internet?: "Mining Your Data

At the core of the new power held by phone and cable companies are tools delivering what is known as 'deep packet inspection.' With these tools, AT&T and others can readily know the packets of information you are receiving online--from e-mail, to websites, to sharing of music, video and software downloads.

These 'deep packet inspection' technologies are partly designed to make sure that the Internet pipeline doesn't become so congested it chokes off the delivery of timely communications. Such products have already been sold to universities and large businesses that want to more economically manage their Internet services. They are also being used to limit some peer-to-peer downloading, especially for music.

But these tools are also being promoted as ways that companies, such as Comcast and Bell South, can simply grab greater control over the Internet. For example, in a series of recent white papers, Internet technology giant Cisco urges these companies to 'meter individual subscriber usage by application,' as individuals' online travels are 'tracked' and 'integrated with billing systems.' Such tracking and billing is made possible because they will know 'the identity and profile of the individual subscriber,' 'what the subscriber is doing' and 'where the subscriber resides.'

Will Google, Amazon and the other companies successfully fight the plans of the Bells and cable companies? Ultimately, they are likely to cut a deal because they, too, are interested in monetizing our online activities. After all, as Cisco notes, content companies and network providers will need to 'cooperate with each other to leverage their value proposition.' They will be drawn by the ability of cable and phone companies to track 'content usage...by subscriber,' and where their online services can be 'protected from piracy, metered, and appropriately valued.'"