Although Germany warned about the implications of adopting deep packet inspection, a United Nation summit agrees that using this method will protect copyrighted content.

A report from CNET informs that a U.N. summit has quietly said yes to China’s proposals to spy on BitTorrent uploaders. The decision comes despite Germany’s objections, which argued that U.N.’s International Telecommunications Union must “not standardize any technical means that would increase the exercise of control over telecommunications content, could be used to empower any censorship of content, or could impede the free flow of information and ideas.”

The previous month, Dubai held a meeting where ITU agreed upon the secret Y.2770 proposal, allowing access to the document to members only. Meanwhile, another meeting started this week (also in Dubai), where the U.S. Government and several internet companies harshly criticised the vote.

Despite the secrecy that surrounds Y.2770, a PDF document posted by a Korean standards body explains how network operators are going to identify “embedded digital watermarks in MP3 data,” discover “copyright protected audio content,” find “Jabber messages with Spanish text,” or “identify uploading BitTorrent users.”

A blog post signed by Alissa Cooper and Emma Llansó of the Center for Democracy and Technology argues that U.N.’s agency “barely acknowledges that DPI has privacy implications, let alone does it provide a thorough analysis of how the potential privacy threats associated with the technology might be mitigated.”

Deep packet inspection comes useful when it comes to fighting against network attacks, detecting malware, or managing applications, but it also draws attention on other issues, such as governmental surveillance.
“Mandatory standards are a bad idea even when they are well designed. Forcing the world’s technology companies to adopt standards developed in a body that fails to conduct rigorous privacy analysis could have dire global consequences for online trust and users’ rights,” Cooper and Llansó added.

To address this issue, Germany called for help by contacting another European telecommunications body – CEPT. In response, CEPT said that its member “countries consider that they cannot oppose” Y.2770. You can read its report here.

The Y.2770 proposal also asks for network operators to decrypt their users’ internet traffic. As frightening as it sounds, this method has been already used by some of ITU member countries. Take the example of Amesys – a unit of the French firm Bull SA – which helped Moammar Gadhafi spy on his people last year.

The examples can continue. Back in August, New York Times drew attention on FinSpy, a malware sold by a British company (Gamma Group) which allowed the activation of computer cameras and microphones. FinSpy has been linked to repressive governments, including Turkmenistan, Brunei, and Bahrain.

Despite all warnings, it seems like the Y.2770 will become a tool of censorship, where governments can spy on its people and god knows what else.

More on this as soon as possible. Stay tuned.