packet inspection and privacy

Mon Jun 24 16:31:58 UTC 2002

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?

I'ld also like to get opinions on privacy policies for network
operators.  It has been suggested that we should adopt a policy that
says that we'll notify customers if:
1) we inspect traffic, 
2) we're aware that an upstream is inspecting traffic 
3) we're required to inspect traffic (by anyone).

Point 3) is just about the same as 1), but it does imply
a slightly different motivation behind the inspection.

Thanks,
-mark