Virgin Media, one of the UK's leading providers of television / broadband / mobile / phone services, has announced plans to use deep packet inspection technology to track illegal file-sharing activity among around 40 percent of its UK users. Users whose activities are being monitored will not be informed of this fact.

The tech comes from Detica, a company better known for working with government data and intelligence agencies than media files and P2P networks. Their CView product is designed to help put an end to illegal filesharing, and with ISPs showing interest, it's unlikely that Virg

Originally posted by george_gaz
Now this is scary stuff. I know that there are two sides to this story ...

a) copyright file sharing/downloading is illegal (such as movies, music, software etc.)

and

b) this kind of action is a breach of privacy

Virgin are not even going to notify users that they are being watched. I thought that this kind of deception was illegal hence why speed cameras are not hidden?

The article mentions that "Although the tech only examines aggregate traffic data, and although a Virgin spokeperson states that records will not be maintained on individual users," but I would argue that they are simply collecting this data to then decide whether to penalise their users.

This will cause a large number of people to move onto other ISPs.

www.readwriteweb.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

edit: correct point a)

[edit on 27-11-2009 by george_gaz]

About your Virgin TV, Virgin Broadband and Virgin Phone services

2 You must, at all times, make sure that the way you use the services does not break the law or the rights of any other person. You are not allowed to copy or record any of the services , or any television or radio programmes contained in the services , except for your own private, domestic and non-commercial use (and if this kind of copying for personal use becomes illegal in the future, you must stop doing it). By law, you are not allowed to show the services , or any programmes contained in the services , to the public where an admission fee is charged. We and/or Virgin Media Entertainment are also entitled to restrict your ability to record Pay-Per-View or programmes on demand without notice and to charge a fee for recording them.

i. We reserve the right to monitor and control data volume and/or types of traffic transmitted via the interactive services on your Virgin TV and/or Internet access . In the event that you exceed any usage allowance applicable to your Internet access or your use does not comply with the 'acceptable use policy' which you can read on the Virgin Media Ltd website , we reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to reduce, suspend or terminate your Internet access . During any time of reduction or suspension, you will remain liable for the payment of your original level of Internet access charge. We also reserve the right (at our sole discretion) to re-grade your Internet access to a different speed and/or usage allowance at the appropriate charge. If we make such changes we will notify you as soon as possible.

Next time read the fine print...!