ISP Hijacking Google and Other Pages
In 2007, Rogers experimented with substituting ads into unencrypted pages, however, the telecommunications company dropped the idea after it generated a great deal of controversy. Cable Internet service provider Mediacom is now using a similar method to inject their own advertisements into the tops of websites, such as Google.
In 2007, Rogers experimented with substituting ads into unencrypted pages, however, the telecommunications company dropped the idea after it generated a great deal of controversy. Cable Internet service provider Mediacom is now using a similar method to inject their own advertisements into the tops of websites, such as Google.
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) may soon be inserting advertisements into any http (unencrypted) page you visit -- at least that’s what Mediacom is doing through a method called Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). What essentially happens is that the ISP interferes with the communications between the Web and the user, and tampers the content of the data packet that is being downloaded to your computer. As a result, instead of the spark Google homepage, you will then see a page with an ad banner from your provider.
As Lauren Weinstein pointed out in his blog, such a practice provides a “red-flag warning” for Internet users. Although you can avoid the unwanted ads by using encrypted connection (https), such a practice is indeed disturbing to Net Neutrality supporters as well as to the actual Web service providers, who don’t necessarily give consent to the ad placement.
Read more at Lauren Weinstein’s blog.
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