I recently read an article posted on PCWorld.com titled "Comcast's Cap May Mean Less Snooping on Your Net Browsing". In it, author Erik Larkin comments on the latest news about Comcast and the bandwidth caps they are starting to enforce on their customers. He states since they have caps, there won't be any reason for them to snoop on the use of your internet traffic because it won't matter. As soon as you hit the cap, you'll be done until next month. Why snoop and shape shift the data if everyone has the same bandwidth to use.
I think there's a few reasons to question whether such a "policy" would happen with Comcast or other ISP's for that matter.
1) ISP's make money off of that data
- Would you give up a revenue stream of around $5 per user?
2) ISP's need the data to market their own products
- We already know other companies pay for the data, why wouldn't Comcast keep the data and figure out how to make it work in their favor. They already get it for free.
3) There are other entities that seem to have "legal" interests tied to the data
- Governments, the RIAA, Hollywood
Although the discussion about whether Comcast will stop snooping because of this cap is interesting, I think it's really missing the bigger picture. The real issue is, the cap is really going to stop consumers from realizing and utilizing the innovative products and tools offered on the internet. Web sites like YouTube and Hulu and Netflix will go unwatched while intensive web programs will go unused. Web based companies will have to adapt, maybe causing quicker sites and less intensive programs, but possibly less quality.
If ISP's like Comcast want to keep consumers happy and continue to promote innovation on the internet, caps need to lifted and the full potential of the internet can finally be realized.
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