Privacy International has asked the European Commission to look into the legality of anti-piracy software used by some ISPs to monitor for illegal file sharing, the BBC reports. Specifically, Privacy International is concerned about software developed by Detica, in use by Virgin Media, that employs deep packet inspection techniques to identify offending files transmitted over Virgin's network. Privacy International believes deep packet inspection poses a threat to privacy because of its ability to identify actual file names. Industry observers say as many as 40 percent of Virgin's customers may be subject to monitoring with the software, but Virgin said that subscriber privacy is not at risk.
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