BEIRUT: State-run internet company Ogero confirmed Friday that it had purchased and used a system to block users from making phone calls over the internet. The company said, however, that “this system has been put out of service [a] long time ago.” The revelation comes years after users first suspected such a system had been put in place to keep users making regular voice calls, a key source of revenue for the government. Ogero “procured a DPI [deep packet inspection system] and it was used just to block illegal VoIP service,” the company told The Daily Star via email.

Deep packet inspection is a technology that allows internet providers to read the content of data packets instead of just the address information needed to deliver them to the right location.

Privacy activists have raised concerns the technology can be used for nefarious purposes.

The U.S. National Security Agency uses it to spy on people worldwide, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden. And in 2011, it emerged that the Syrian government was using such technology from Blue Coat, an American company, to spy on its citizens.

Ogero purchased its system from ipoque, a German company. The internet provider did not specify when it bought the system, or when they stopped using it; however, online complaints about blocked VoIP service in Lebanon cluster around 2010-12.

At that time Ogero was headed by Abdel-Moneim Youssef, who was dismissed in January of this year in favor of current Director-General Imad Kreidieh.

Kreidieh was unavailable to comment for this article.

While the technology can be abused, DPI can also be used to enhance network performance.

A network specialist who works with private internet service providers in Lebanon told The Daily Star, “[If what Ogero says is true,] ipoque was used before in a very simple mode as well – and that’s good.”

That, however, does not mean Lebanese internet users are free from potential DPI abuses. While Ogero said it did not use DPI to limit internet speeds, it did not immediately respond to clarify whether any other DPI systems were in place. And foreign governments and local internet companies also use the technology.

The network specialist, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic, told The Daily Star, “It’s mostly inside private companies.”