House to Inspect Deep-Packet Inspection

House Telecommunications Subcommittee to hold hearing Thursday on deep-packet inspection.

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/15/2008 4:12:00 PM

Yet another hearing has been called related to Internet privacy.

The House Telecommunications Subcommittee scheduled a hearing Thursday on deep-packet inspection.

That is the ability of network operators to see traffic on their network, which the committee expects to be deployed across commercial networks.

"Taking a magnifying glass to the individual packets of data that traverse the network," the committee said in announcing the hearing, "raises questions relating to consumer privacy, as well as copyright [and] network management."

Among the witnesses will be Robert Dykes, chairman of NebuAd, the company that has seen its online targeted-marketing partnerships draw flak from legislators.

There were two hearings on Internet advertising and privacy on the Hill Tuesday, one each in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. That followed a hearing last week in the Senate Commerce Committee.