IP Democracy: Rogers Splices Into Google...It Could Be Worse

A little donnybrook is brewing over a test by Rogers Communication to insert its own messages on top of Google's web page. Lauren Weinstein, a tech consultant and Internet activist, rang an alarm bell on his blog over this practice, worrying about whether this is a form of spying and web traffic modification on the part of Canada's largest ISP.

Later, in an interview, Weinstein argued that this is a classic example of why we need net neutrality. Net neutrality is "not just making sure that data is handled in a competitive and non-discriminatory manner, but it's also that the data that's sent is the data that you get." Well, not quite.

As Mathew Ingram points out, this has very little to do with net neutrality. Lots of web sites insert annoying messages without our permission and at least Rogers provides a way for customers to opt out of what it calls its Internet Subscriber Notification System.

A similar but far more annoying tactic by Verizon in the U.S., however, comes a little closer to raising net neutrality hackles. When its Internet customers mistype URLs, Verizon automatically reroutes them to its own co-branded Yahoo-search engine (click on picture for screen shot), which is a lousy substitute for what I used to get -- a page of search results from Google.

Opting out of this hijacking system isn't the easiest thing in the world, although Verizon does offer a link for doing so. The problem is, the link jumps to a page that doesn't allow a one-click opt-out. This page explains that you can opt out of "DNS assistance" by changing the DNS settings in the router or modem or in your operating system (which Verizon doesn't recommend.)

The process for changing the DNS settings, while not beyond me, is time-consuming and I've always put it off. If Verizon somehow managed to establish DNS settings that reroutes me to its default search engine, why can't it give me the option to automatically undo what it did? (I might be betraying my technical illiteracy here, but I'm not even sure how it was that I used to get Google search results before I became a Verizon FiOS subscriber. Did Comcast, my previous ISP, reroute me to Google in much the same manner that Verizon is rerouting me to Yahoo!?)

So, to the folks in Canada who are upset by Rogers splicing into Google with its own messages, I say: It could be worse. You might get rerouted to Yahoo!'s search engine when you mistype URLs.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on December 11, 2007 9:15 AM to IP Democracy