Sandvine, a company that bills itself as helping “organizations run world-class networks with Active Network Intelligence, machine learning analytics and closed-loop automation with our DPI” has just released its latest report on the state of piracy in Canada.

Since Sandvine sells the equipment which powers web site blocking regimes, the conclusions in their report should be taken with a grain of salt. It’s like having the cigarette companies tell you that their research has shown that cigarettes are good for you, would you believe them?

There is however something a lot more alarming about this report. It appears that multiple ISPs are giving Sandvine access to their networks for the purpose of spying on their customers in order to track exactly what they are doing online and which web sites they visit.

It’s quite concerniing to think that your ISP would give an anti-piracy outfit access to all the private communications of its customers, but it’s clearly happening. Keep in mind that it would be impossible to analyze piracy traffic without having access to all traffic, meaning they are even spying on Canadians who are completely law abiding.

This isn’t just passive tracking, they are analyzing which specific devices you are using to access the internet, and any unencrypted data (including emails) are passing through this private companies wholesale spying system.

Instead of innovating, companies like Bell, Rogers and Videotron have gone full blown militant in their crusade against piracy. They are violating the rights and privacy of all Canadians, for the sole purpose of augmenting their already increasing bottom line.

Meanwhile, they’re pushing a narrative that recommends censoring the entire Canadiian internet, so that they can maintain control over exactly what content Canadians are allowed to access.

Sandvine has recently been given government grants in Ontario, while being caught collaborating with oppressive regimes in Egypt, Turkey and Syria.

If you’d like to read through corrupt Sandvine’s bogus reports, they are available here:

Right now there’s not much you can do to stop this spying from happening, but we hope that human rights groups will take notice. in the meantime you might want to consider subscribing to a VPN service in order to encrypt and anonymize your internet traffic.