Several service providers (ISP) U.S. redirecting requests of their customers, conducted since the major search engines, reveals, Thursday, Aug. 4, the New Scientist.
According to the site, a dozen service providers are involved, representing millions of subscribers. For both academics at the University of Berkeley who unearthed this system, this redirection may have commercial purposes. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an association that aims to protect online privacy, traffic is sent to a server of a third company, named Paxfire.
The Berkeley researchers also note that the redirection of requests is mainly focused on certain keywords. So, for example, brand names like "Apple" or "Dell".
REDIRECTION TO COMMERCIAL SITES
Typically, when a user types a phrase into the search bar of their browser, it gets a results page, with several clickable links. But with this system, the ISP intercepts the request of the user, which can be found directly on a commercial Web site. According to the New Scientist, ISPs, who did not wish to comment, would receive compensation for such transactions.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation also points out that Google has "lobbied to stop the ISP to forward requests" from their search engine. But according to the association for the protection of users, it is not yet the case for Yahoo, and Bing, Microsoft.
