Keeping Telcos honest. Or at least honest-ish.

Net Neutrality (the way I define it anyway), is critical to the future of transparency in news, politics, and every other form of information.

The ability of Telcos and Cable Companies to "packet-shape" (decide which data gets through, and which doesn't) lies at the heart of the issue. Imagine if the current ruling political party, the Neo-cons, were able to "convince" AT&T to "lose" certain packets related to a damaging scandal (say, warrant-less NSA wire-tapping). What would happen then?

No one would ever know about it. Don't kid yourself, it could happen. The technology already exists.

And that is simply too much control in the hands of too few greedy, corruptible politicians and CEOs. It would spell the end of the free press (at least online), and possibly the end of democracy as we know it (or knew it, rather).

Luckily, Black Hat researcher, Dan Kaminsky, is creating software that will track such interference by the ISPs. Finally, there is a tool to keep tabs on any filtering or hampering of information, news or other content that the Telcos don't want you to see (or, their favorite political party didn't want you to see).

Net Neutrality isn't so much about paying more for faster service—I have no beef with that. My fear is that, left unpoliced, the Big Five ISPs would create an Internet that could be too easily, and untraceably, abused (see also, China).