Based on public perception, Deep Packet Inspection would seem to be a technology either headed for the scrap heap or doomed to very limited applications.

Well-documented problems with how DPI is used have many, including the American Civil Liberties Union, questioning whether this technology, which allows ISPs to look at each packet they transport and know where it comes from, where it is going, and which subscribers and applications are involved, isn’t too dangerous to be widely deployed and used.

“If DPI is built everywhere, will we see the govt. try to force ISPs or search companies to turn over data or create a back door for the government – targeted warrants and requests?” said Timothy Sparapani, ACLU senior legislative counsel. “I don’t think people expect there to be a gatekeeper or recording monitoring their Internet activity.”

That’s why the ACLU and others have argued in Congressional hearings for limits on what telecom service providers can do with DPI.

Telecom industry officials, particularly those who have developed products which use DPI or something similar to enable new applications and services believe that is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

“It’s as if somebody took a hammer and broke into a store and stole some cash and Congress says ‘We are going to outlaw hammers’,” said Kevin Walsh, vice president of marketing for Zeugma, which makes an edge services router that uses Deep Session Inspection, a sister to DPI.