Archive: December, 2007

If you’re reading these words in Canada, I can only guarantee that they were true to my writing as I typed them. Chances are nothing has changed but for the record, if you are reading these words in my home and native land, I can no longer pass any assurance to you whatsoever that the site I write to is exactly the same as the site you are viewing. Huh?

Earlier this week, Canada’s largest high-speed Internet Service Provider, Rogers Communications, began an experiment in which the company hijacks and alters other websites in order to deliver messages through its new Internet Subscriber Notification Service. In the specific case mentioned at Net Neutrality expert Lauren Weinstein’s blog, the familiar Google homepage was altered to add a message from Rogers which was sponsored by their corporate search partner Yahoo!

Using deep packet inspection technology, Rogers monitors every page delivered to its clients with the ability to insert its messages into the content stream when it feels it necessary. The messages note when each client is passing the 75% mark of the monthly bandwidth caps Rogers applies to client accounts.