Edward Henigin, Chief Technology Officer of Data Foundry, a leading provider of data center services, recently spoke at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, TX. Mr. Henigin was a member of the “Network Neutrality: Why Does It Matter?” panel which also featured Craig Mollerstuen, VP Broadband Services – Alaska Operations for GCI Communication Corp.
Data Foundry has been active with the net privacy movement over the past several years, speaking on panels, corresponding with government officials, and, in June of 2007, filing a response to the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry regarding Broadband Market Practices. Data Foundry continues to advocate for customer choice and is actively promoting net privacy not only in their local Texas community, but also in Washington, D.C., on a national scale.
Mr. Henigin joined the NECC panel to present on nonconsensual targeted advertising and how such practices threaten the privacy of Internet users. Mr. Henigin revealed how advertisers use Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to monitor the content of communications such as emails, instant messages, browser history, etc., in order to turn those communications into advertisements.
Data Foundry’s position on privacy is different from that of many “Net Neutrality” advocates, whose proposed solutions require inspection and monitoring of the content of Internet users’ communications. Data Foundry opposes all inspection of content absent consent or a court-issued warrant. Several broadband providers want to “wiretap” their users for various purposes. Data Foundry believes that inspection and monitoring is a violation of Net privacy and user choice.
Mr. Henigin, and Data Foundry, made suggestions regarding targeted advertising, including full disclosure and transparency, and opt-in only consent for access to user content by Internet providers and advertisers. Data Foundry wants lawmakers to establish a public policy against Internet access contracts that do not disclose network practices or require waiver of privacy rights as a condition of service. Data Foundry advocates customer choice and Net privacy.
To learn more about Data Foundry’s stance on open Internet principles, net privacy, and customer choice, view Data Foundry’s comments to the FCC. For more information on Data Foundry® data center services, visit //www.datafoundry.com/.