14 DAY TRIAL // EU has pledged to keep an eye on UK ISP's Virgin Media latest plan to monitor illegal file-sharing traffic on its network following a complaint from human rights organization Privacy International. The European Commission said it would monitor how the ISP deploys the software it would use for deep-packet inspection of the traffic flowing through its pipes from about 40 percent of its customers.
Virgin made a bit of a splash last year when it announced that it would deploy a technology enabling it to analyze its traffic and detect illegal file-sharing. The ISP claims that it doesn't plan to use the technology to go after illegal file-sharers, at least not for now; instead, it simply wants to get an accurate measurement of how much of the traffic going through its network is associated with the practice and how big of a problem illegal file-sharing really is.
The human rights watchdog claims that the solution used is against UK law. Alexander Hanff, head of ethical networks at Privacy International told the BBC that "under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) intercepting communications is a criminal offence regardless of what you do with the data." He also said he would follow up with a criminal complaint if the ISP went ahead with the plan to deploy the technology.
As a result of the EC investigation, Virgin Media has put on hold its planned trial runs. The ISP claims that the technology holds no threat to privacy as it doesn't link any of its users to illegal sharing, it just wants to get a global view of the traffic.
"It was never designed to capture identities. This isn't an answer for that," Asam Ahmad, a spokesman for Virgin Media, told the BBC. "We want to understand what we can do to reduce illegal file-sharing. This will tell us things such as the name of the top ten tracks being shared as well as the percentage of legal versus illegal," he added. Virgin's move comes in the broader dispute caused by the proposed “thee-strikes” currently reviewed in the legislation process in the UK.