Juniper ZIP+4: ‘bad, bad, bad stuff’
p2pnet view P2P | Advertising:- “This is bad, bad, bad, bad stuff”, says DPI expert Christopher Parsons (right) who, with Colin Bennett, runs deeppacketinspection.ca.
He was talking about ZIP+4, highlighted in a warning from Wired.
Your ISP already knows where you live, and soon, it’ll “have a way to sell your zip code to advertisers so they can target ads by neighborhood”, says the story, going on:
“National advertisers will be able to market directly to neighborhoods with like characteristics across the whole country using demographic data they’ve been gathering for decades.”
Think about it.
Wired continues >>>
Juniper Networks, which sells routers to ISPs, plans to start selling them add-on technology from digital marketer Feeva that affixes a tag inside the HTTP header, consisting of each user’s “zip+4″ — a nine-digit zipcode that offers more accuracy than five-digit codes — delivered in coded form that is readable by participating ad network partners (updated).
Juniper hopes to sell the software to ISPs starting this summer, having announced a partnership with Feeva earlier this year.
Advertisers tampering with the data packet to ‘enhance’ their abilities to track people?
It shouldn’t be allowed to happen, Parsons declares emphatically.
This is a technology that, on the face of it, “appears to be on the scale of NebuAd’s and Phorm’s efforts to provide granular intelligence to marketers”, he told p2pnet, stressing >>>
Juniper’s technology seems to differ from prior deep packet inspection-based systems by performing a strong correlation between packet flows and rough geographic information and then providing ‘aggregated’ information to marketers.
While Juniper may argue they’re providing only limited information to ad partners, academic literature as well as the works of privacy advocates have routinely exposed the incredible competence of marketers to correlate data patterns with geographic spaces.
Marketers’ capacities to precisely target individuals based on web browsing that’s perceived by individuals as private, confidential, or simply no one else’s damned business, clearly constitutes an infringement to people’s communicative, expressive, and associational privacy.
Given this, Juniper’s technology can (and should) be seen as yet another attempt to intensify the surveillance citizens are subject to while they browse the ‘net, purely to enhance corporate bottom lines at the expense of citizens’ privacy.
Any attempt to ‘monetize’ the packet stream in this way must be on an opt-in basis, those who do not opt-in should not have their packets modified for advertising-related purposes, and all ISPs that deploy this technology should be required to publicly, transparently, and clearly inform the public about the integration of advertising-driven surveillance equipment in the ISPs network.
Further, the integration of these types of systems into any Canadian ISPs’ network may run headfirst into the CRTC’s decision concerning the use of deep packet inspection for advertising (in short: don’t do it without going before the CRTC first) and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (in short: you can’t engage in DPI-based advertising without first clearing it with the Commissioner’s office).
“If any ISP, anywhere in the free world, integrates these devices into their networks they’re pitting themselves against the privacy interests of citizens and demonstrate a willingness to chill citizens’ rights of speech and association in our digitized national democracies solely in the interests of making a few bucks”, Parsons adds.
Definitely stay tuned.
… and identi.ca
Wired – Coming Soon: Web Ads Tailored to Your ZIP+4, June 22, 2010
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June 25th, 2010 at 8:22 pm
If my ISP starts messing with my http headers, they will no longer be my ISP. It’s that simple. I think they would also be in for one heck of a lawsuit for broadcasting my private information (9-digit zip code) without my explicit permission. ISPs have deep pockets, and so does Juniper. It wouldn’t be hard to drag them through the courts until they crack and pony up the cash for me and my ambulance-chasing lawyer.
Juniper seems to think they can insert these headers in ‘coded’ form, so unless you pay Juniper, your web-site can’t decode them. That’s some business model (scam) they’ve come up with. Whoever thought of it clearly knows very little about encryption, because this is nothing more than data obfuscation, and it would take VERY LITTLE time until ANYONE and EVERYONE could decode this extra header. So, in essence, ANY web-site could pinpoint your location. What’s even better, is the NSA and other goons (such as organized criminals and spys within the NSA and ISPs) can record your location along with your intercepted data, making the job of a tyrannical gov’t much easier.
It might be time to sell your Juniper stock, they clearly are lacking in intelligence and must be very desperate for revenue if they are resorting to this ridiculous scheme.
July 5th, 2010 at 11:35 pm
This is an offence under Canada’s Telecommunications Act.