It's not yet clear whether the Federal Communications Commission's recent vote to enact neutrality rules will hold up in court. But the agency isn't waiting for court approval for at least one portion
of its neutrality order: the requirement that broadband providers offer users transparency.
This week, the FCC announced a contest to create new software tools that will give consumers more information about their Internet access services. "These
software tools could, for example, detect whether a broadband provider is interfering with DNS responses, application packet headers, or content," the FCC said. Winners will be invited to Washington
and their work appear on the FCC's site.
As with online privacy, the vast majority of consumers likely have no idea what Web companies do beneath the hood. Some consumers might suspect that
their Web connections temporarily slow down at various times, but it seems unlikely that most people know whether that's due to server problems, network congestion or deliberate traffic-shaping by
Internet service providers.
Just as tools like Ghostery make it possible for people to discover when they're being tracked, there's no reason why other apps can't enable users to learn when
their ISPs are tinkering with the flow of traffic.
What's more, even without new laws, tools that provide consumers with information promote accountability -- and, in some cases, spark
lawsuits that can result in changes to business practices.
Consider the Comcast-BitTorrent situation. The FCC sanctioned Comcast for throttling visits to BitTorrent, but an appellate court
overturned that order; the court ruled that the FCC lacked jurisdiction to enforce neutrality rules. But, separately, consumers brought a class-action lawsuit against Comcast for allegedly violating its contract with users by preventing
them from using peer-to-peer applications. That case eventually settled with Comcast agreeing to pay $16
million.