The Dutch government is considering monitoring all internet traffic by means of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI). Thus stated State Secretary for Security and Justice Fred Teeven to the Dutch House of Representatives last Thursday.

The reason for considering implementing DPI is the realisation that the current child porn filter is not effective. The current filter operates on the basis of a blacklist for websites in the Netherlands, but is easily circumvented by using a foreign DNS server. The same criticism was already evident from the highly critical report of the Dutch Scientific Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) two years ago. The current child pornography filter based on a blacklist by the National Police Force Agency (KLPD) would be technically, practically and legally feasible and unsustainable.

According to the ministry, DPI brings the advantage of knowing where internet traffic is directed. This makes room for the possibility of blocking access to only the illegal parts of a website instead of blocking a whole domain which may contain both illegal and legal information.

A spokesman for the ministry of Security and Justice states that there are several complications to DPI that need to be investigated further. The ministry will respond on the issue to the House of Representatives in February 2011.

UPDATE: Dutch MEP Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert stated on her Twitter account that State Secretary Fred Teeven's view on DPI as brought forward in the media is based on a miscommuncation. 

Source: Webwereld, Nu.nl