Reuters reports that a committee at the House of Representatives has sent letters to 30 key Internet companies including Google and Microsoft querying their use of targeting techniques and specifically asking if they: "tailored, or facilitated the tailoring of, Internet advertising based on consumers Internet search, surfing, or other use."

The committee is particularly interested in 'deep packet inspection'.  Deep packet inspection is a technique that basically looks at the content of data - like a request for a web page - as it whizzes around the internet, reads the data and in this case looks for opportunities to serve up relevant advertising.  It's exactly the same technique that Phorm in the UK is planning to use.

In the US, the concern is whether consumers have been made aware that deep packet inspection is in operation.  At least one of the committee members feels that consumers should give their permission prior to these techniques being deployed - which frankly would be one hell of a sell to consumers.