Does Ma Bell spy on users online?
p2pnet news | Freedom:- On top of their efforts to neutralise net neutrality, large Canadian ISPs, including Ma Bell and Rogers Communications, may be spying on customers’ online, says a Canadian law group.
The ISPs are already in effect censoring their customers by deliberately blocking access, and now the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) has filed a complaint with Canada’s Privacy Commissioner about Bell Canada’s alleged practice of monitoring internet subscribers’ internet activities without their knowledge or consent.
Bell began applying deep packet inspection to its Sympatico retail customers late in October 2007, “but only admitted this practice late in March 2008, after it began applying the same practice to subscribers of other, independent internet service providers,” says CIPPIC.
Bell claims it’s respecting the privacy of ISP subscribers, but it’s refused to describe just what its deep packet inspection of subscribers’ activities really uncovers, says clinic executive director Philippa Lawson
“How can they know if their privacy is being respected, if Bell won’t disclose what it is actually doing?” – she wants to know, going on, “Our complaint focuses on Bell, but we are asking the Commissioner to investigate all ISPs who engage in traffic-shaping practices.
“We’re asking the Privacy Commissioner to investigate just what Bell’s use of deep packet inspection involves. Canadians have a right to know who is looking over their shoulders, and why.”
There’s also evidence other large ISPs such as Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco, may be similarly spying on their customers, says Lawson.
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.Stumble It!
deliberately blocking access – NDP really gets traffic throttling issue: CAIP, May 8, 200
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May 10th, 2008 at 11:10 am
“but only admitted this practice late in March 2008, after it began applying the same practice to subscribers of other, independent internet service providers,”
Bell admitted nothing.
Also, the notice was passed on to 3rd party ISP’s, many of whom also did not officially notify their own customers.
Bell never informed its own customers to this day!
The only people aware are those who frequent broadband or P2P type forums, or those who understood what they read in newspaper as Bell was spinning stuff that wasn’t true.
So TELL ME, who did they inform again?
ty
:p
May 10th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Bell certainly never officially informed anyone before the 2nd stage of their throttling (of the resellers). And sending a (half-assed) letter, containing nothing but rhetoric, to the resellers weeks AFTER implementing it (and only after being confronted BY those resellers about it) certainly doesn’t qualify as “informing”.
On the other hand, CAIP’s motions to the CRTC, along with their openness to the public on the issues, could qualify as “more than sufficient” on their part. The fact that the resellers were already “under siege”, and initially having to assess what was actually happening to them and their ability to deliver service, makes any delay to informing their customers more than forgivable.
I find it interesting (well, not really), that, as it stands right now, if Canada Post were to be opening envelopes to determine if mail should be blocked from its destination (perhaps a new policy to “deter the sending of counterfeit CDs”), every faucet of the Privacy Commission would be all over them! (Not to mention how much longer it would take to get that mail out, with the inspection process to pass.)
As far as I’m concerned, UNREGULATED providers should NEVER have been allowed to even toy with the idea of providing their own content in the first place. It defies logic and common sense.
Open packets, in any manner, and interfering with the flow of these packets, are 2 activities that are SUPPOSED TO BE ILLEGAL for a provider to engage in, and also in violation of the “Common Carrier” rules.
May 10th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
“more than sufficient” ?? Again, only the forum users are aware.
How many things get submitted to the CRTC that YOU are aware of? “more than sufficient” , I think not.
May 12th, 2008 at 4:53 am
It’s time to remove ISPs from the equation and replace it with a nationally funded network for all to access, then we can replace all the anachronistic infrastructure with fibre optics. A tax payer funded open for all network, hassle free and immediately available.
Elimination of these unwilling to invest; self serving; oppressive; privacy invading “wha wha” cry babies. It’s time for change, and I’m sick of all these crappy ISPs, they can’t regulate themselves or do a satisfactory job. It’s time to take the network national and make it free (taxpayers) for all.
I don’t see a need for ISPs anyway, they are just middle men controlling the network which should belong to all of us; they confuse, complicate, and frustrate the process of connecting to servers around the world. After all, all you really need is a few dns servers and you are good to go
May 12th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Yes, Reader’s Write, let’s reduce the number of ISPs available to choose from down to ONE for the entire country, and then we’ll place it under the exclusive control of the government. This couldn’t possibly turn out bad!
Are you really this naive or are you a clever troll? I can’t believe someone would seriously think this to be a good idea.
May 12th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
@ Reader’s Write…
My point about the CRTC motions being “more than sufficient” had to do with the fact that they TOOK ACTION – something we all could very well be grateful for in the end. And, that action has helped cause 3 key concerns (competition, privacy, and net neutrality) to become very public. I’m starting to see even the mainstream media covering it.
Certainly, it would have been nice if CAIP’s customers got more info sooner, but, we have to remember that the resellers providing their service were victims of something they were still assessing just as complaints started to come in.
I’m sure CAIP providers wanted to KNOW more about what was happening, and what their options were, and what, exactly, to say to their customers, before coming off with “unhelpful” answers. Many people left Bell to get away from that kind of BS.
I’m sure, if I was one of those customers, I would have appreciated that.
As to a “nationally funded network”…
How can you replace Bell with something it’s ALREADY SUPPOSED TO BE??
Yes, public money built it, and the CRTC rules laid out for it stated that profits earned were supposed to go into maintaining and upgrading the infrastructure. And, with the mandated 3rd Party access, that was supposed to create and guarantee competition, without having “multiple infrastructures” being built all over the place.
I don’t know if the “deregulation” move some ten years ago changed any part of the profit management agreement. If so, then it should have been incumbent upon the CRTC to BETTER SEPARATE the “internet provider”, the “phone company” and the “satellite TV provider”, and either keep the “internet provider” from becoming a CONTENT provider, or not allow the “internet provider” to become deregulated.
Instead, we ended up with multiple “Bell Companies”, all allowed to operate both “independently” and “collectively”, as chosen by Bell in each and every case to suit its own agenda. That was clearly wrong.
Bell has clearly violated a number of current CRTC restrictions, as well as a number of laws pertaining to Fair Competition, Privacy, and Common Carrier Rules. It’s reasonable to assume Bell has cut its own throat in its wish to be the Gods of the Internet.
Perhaps we will be thanking Bell when all the dust has settled, as their moves may have been instrumental in forcing these issues to be reviewed BEFORE we find ourselves with a corporately-owned, MAFIAA-sponsored, 2-tiered Internet.
October 18th, 2009 at 4:16 am
“Bell Canada”
Call it unfair to what Bell Canada Sympatico is doing using “Deep-Pocket Inspection” (DPI) it’s downright “Discrimination, Unprofessional, Unethical, Ideological Blindness and Undermining Direct Retaliations to their customers, and major Inc’s across Canada”. Canada ranks 25 out of 30 countries across the global front for Broadband Communication Development because of “Mismanagement of funds”,
Stockholders, Shareholders, and “Fat Cat Politicians” including the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) caving into Mammoth BCE Inc’s an effective “Canadian Broadband Communication Development” strategy into today’s marketplace requires -
(1) Robust policies
(2) Solid leadership
(3) Better infrastructure management
(4) Fundamental architecture administration
The use of peer2peer network and/or other applications such as the use of Bit Torrents and/or Net neutrality that are used by different people on their own personal networks, that facilities and the individual business applications, (so anytime you come in with an over-reaching strategy and try to force into the environment), or internet you are creating not just a technical challenge, but a political conflict.
What should be done is everybody needs to boycott BCE Inc’s and disconnect their entire services right across the board. And then they Mammoth BCE Inc’s just might pull their head out of their “butts” far enough to see daylight; until then the Tech sectors well continue to fall and before you know it Canada will be ranked 30 out of 30 countries for the use of broad bandwidth and the lack their of It’s nothing but a slap across the face of our founding forefathers!
Now today the country seemed to be “standing at the side of the information highway while other nations like the United Kingdom and Japan broadband Ten to 20 time faster than that of the U.S pass us by “has become so extreme that it inhibits creativity and innovation.” Perhaps, Mammoth BCE Inc’s hasn’t been active enough in trying to dispel misconceptions of its technologies that the usage of Net neutrality.
This playful approach to the workplace stands in stark contrast to the turmoil BCE Inc’s faces from regulators countrywide; BCE Inc’s once deemed the darling of the information age is getting big enough to threaten media companies, privacy advocates and government watchdogs like the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Now the Mammoth BCE Inc’s is on a global public relations blitz to restore its once-cuddly image.
Part of that is focusing on its innovative workplace philosophy and customer’s relationship but for all its accolades from technologists. BCE Inc’s is scolded by regulators and critics, a sign that BCE Inc’s may be getting too big for its own good. One could argue that it’s below average performance means it delivers less broadband communication for our Canadian dollar; there would be more pressure on it to keep prices competitive on the forefront.
For example, would it have taken the bold step: BCE Inc’s also needs to put more detail onto its customer’s relationship where it faces significant competition? This could yet prove to be one of the biggest obstacles to the BCE Inc’s ongoing success into and offer new perspective with commitments to more open consultation and to the development of polices that better reflect the real-world realities of new technologies, innovation, creators, and the reasonable expectations of Canadian consumers innovation into a better broadband infrastructure and launched a countrywide build-out of fiber-optic lines to homes (FTTH), making the lower capacity copper wire obsolete.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), Department of Commerce needs to get more involved in projects that will build out broadband infrastructure despite significantly different between political and marketplace conditions Geographical and demographic disadvantages in rural development areas, to deliver broadband capabilities for the growing addiction to speed, ironically, is returning near monopoly power in Fiber to the Cabinet (FTTC) and Fiber to the Home (FTTH).
If Bell Aliant in partnership with “Government of New Brunswick”, to bring first in Canada to lunch fiber to the home (FTTH) then what’s wrong with Bell Canada doing the something?