Canadian ISP Rogers seem to take control of users’ browsers and show them what they want than what users want to see. You have been used to see a clean, white Google homepage usually, but then why this time some clutter at the top of the page? Well, Rogers, itself decided to add that clutter at the top and modify the page presented to the ISP user. Check out the snapshot below and click on it, if you want to see the bigger picture. Fun thing is, you can see “Yahoo” word at three different places on this which probably you would never see on Google’s homepage.
This is a good example of putting net neutrality in question as not only data not being handled in a competitive and non-discriminatory manner, but also the content is modified here.
As per Internet technology expert Lauren Weinstein, this system is manufactured by the “in-browser marketing” firm PerfTech and being tested to send the customer about the account status.
Well, this deep packet inspection process is right now being used to send the status messages, but who knows, it can be used later for advertising to customers when they don’t want it in first place.
Also read some interesting posts:
okay, that is very alarming. i guess seeing how the isp’s are gatekeepers, it makes me very nervous in terms of control and privacy. It makes me want to anonymize anything i do on the internet. but i guess i won’t be able to control what they push my way. that’s very disconcerting.