The Wall Street Journal recently announced that two U.S. companies are once again exploring a technology called “deep packet inspection” (DPI) as a means to specifically target online ads at consumers. The technology, which has come under fire in the past because it raises serious privacy concerns, tracks Internet users’ browsing habits and records the information to enable advertisers to tailor their content. Those opposed to DPI suggest that it has an alarming potential for abuse. In once scenario, DPI could compromise privacy on the web altogether by harvesting personal details from confidential emails.
Despite the legitimate opposition, widespread adoption of DPI as an advertising tool seems inevitable. The technology has already shown promise beyond the advertising realm: it could save telecoms billions by optimizing mobile networks, and is contemplated to help the U.S. government thwart hacker attacks. Its potential in advertising could be too valuable not to exploit.
DPI could benefit users as well. The more information advertisers have, the more specific their ads become, which can benefit consumers by boosting the number of relevant ads (as opposed to irrelevant spam) that is introduced to them. In this respect, it is hard to deny the appeal that targeted ads have.
In one sense, DPI is a logical extension to methods that are already used to target advertisements. Facebook, a social networking site that allows users to create custom profiles where they share personal information, has benefited tremendously from targeting its ads based on such information. In addition, Google has amassed a vast amount of valuable information about Gmail users that it has contemplated selling to advertisers and uses it on its own to funnel the most relevant ads to certain consumers. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal reports that major websites have already begun collecting information about surfing habits and that the information is openly traded. Thus, there may be almost no privacy left for DPI to strip away.
To quote Pedro Ripper, strategy and technology director of a Brazilian-based ISP company:
“Everyone is going to get there. It’s just a matter of timing.”