Posted: 23rd Apr, 2009 By: MarkJ
The
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communication (APPGC), which is chaired by John Robertson MP and Derek Wyatt MP, has launched a new investigation into Internet traffic. This will include issues of net neutrality (restricting bandwidth to specific applications, while prioritising others), child abuse image filtering and the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) systems, such as Phorm .
To help in their investigation the APPGC has proposed a series of five questions about Internet traffic (below). Submissions can be made in reply to the questions by 22nd May, with evidence meetings being held in Parliament during June. The final report is expected this autumn:
The Questions:
1. Can we distinguish circumstances when ISPs should be forced to act to deal with some type of bad traffic? When should we insist that ISPs should not be forced into dealing with a problem, and that the solution must be found elsewhere?
2. Should the Government be intervening over behavioural advertising services, either to encourage or discourage their deployment; or is this entirely a matter for individual users, ISPs and websites?
3. Is there a need for new initiatives to deal with online privacy, and if so, what should be done?
4. Is the current global approach to dealing with child sexual abuse images working effectively? If not, then how should it be improved?
5. Who should be paying for the transmission of Internet traffic? Would it be appropriate to enshrine any of the various notions of Network Neutrality in statute?
Naturally Phorm , which controversially works with UK broadband ISPs (e.g. BT WebWise) to monitor what websites you visit for use in targeted advertising campaigns , has been quick to issue its own statement on the investigation:
Phorm Statement: "We welcome the decision by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communication to examine internet traffic. We look forward to working with the Group, some of whose members we have met in the last year. In those meetings and going forward we will be happy to explain the enormous potential of Phorm’s internet advertising service with its industry leading privacy standards.
Consumers will be given a clear choice over whether to participate in a system that uniquely stores no personal data such as browsing histories or IP addresses. Furthermore, our technology will redistribute the significant online advertising revenues in a more balanced way, helping ISPs to invest in better services for UK internet users.
Our British-developed service has the capability to reshape the online advertising industry and enable us to become a new competitive force in this sector. We shall be in touch with John Robertson, MP and Derek Wyatt, MP in due course to make arrangements to offer our expert opinion."
No doubt some of our readers will want to have their say on these issues and can do so by submitting their responses to the questions here -
admin@apcomms.org.uk. However these should be concise and address the matters raised while not exceeding 4 pages.
The group also asks that people do not attempt to address all of the questions and instead focus on the matters on which you have particular expertise or strong opinions. Submissions must be dated, include an address, name, email, telephone contact and can be in plaintext, PDF, DOC or RTF format.