packet inspection and privacy

Tue Jun 25 14:09:57 UTC 2002

Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> Mark Kent writes:
>>
>> I recently claimed that, in the USA, there is a law that prohibits an
>> ISP from inspecting packets in a telecommunications network for
>> anything other than traffic statistics or debugging.
>>
>> Was I correct?
> 
> No.  Or at least you weren't; the Patriot Act may have changed it.
> (I assume you're talking about U.S. law.)
> 
> There was a quirk in the wording of the law -- what you say is correct 
> for *telephone* companies, but not ISPs.

You're referring to "common carrier" status, I think.

This isn't exclusively restricted to phone companies, but that's the way 
it is right now.  I think it may also apply to non-voice carriers that 
sell circuits.  I'm pretty certain that it does not apply to ISPs.

A common carrier is not allowed to monitor/filter traffic on customer 
circuits.  They also can't be held responsible for the traffic on those 
circuits.

-- David