Charter Is Latest ISP To Plan Wiretapping Via DPI

Slashdot points out that Charter Communications has begun sending letters to its customers informing them that, as an "enhanced user experience", it will start spying on their searches and the websites they visit injecting Charter's own targeted ads.

Furthermore, Charter, which serves almost 6 million customers, is requiring users who want to keep their activity private to submit their personal information using an unencrypted form and then download a privacy cookie. The cookie must then be downloaded again each and every time a user clear the web cache or uses a different browser.

Although consumers are already protesting Charter's flawed opt-out clause, there is the more troublesome implementation of "deep packet inspecting" (DPI) to consider. DPI allows an ISP to monitor not only its users searches and visited websites, but also the type of activity (e.g., email) which threatens net neutrality and could be used for traffic shaping.
See more at THE CONSUMERIST.