Wehe

Zift Advisory

The Wehe app allows users to check their internet service provider to ensure they’re adhering to net neutrality. Wehe is rated for users of all ages, is free to download and use, and does not feature any in-app purchases or advertisements. This app is available in the App Store or the Google Play Store. This app is safe for kids.

About Wehe

What is Wehe?

Developed in a partnership between Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Wehe app allows users to check their internet service provider to ensure they’re adhering to net neutrality. Users’ provider data is reported to the Universities for collation.

Wehe is rated for users of all ages, is free to download and use, and does not feature any in-app purchases or advertisements. This app can be downloaded from the App Store or the Google Play Store.

To understand the hows and whys of the Wehe app, users must first understand net neutrality. Net neutrality is the concept that internet service providers treat all data equally and do not change in charge per user, content, website, application, network or equipment.

In essence, internet service providers cannot function as gatekeepers of the internet by blocking, slowing down or charging for access to different sites and content. Violations of net neutrality are governed by the Federal Communications Commission.

Much like the SETI project, the Wehe app collects individual information and then is part of the collaborative effort to perform checks and balances on internet service providers. With the Wehe app, users can verify whether their internet service provider is speeding up or slowing down sites, in violation of net neutrality.

Wehe developers explain how the app works:

Wehe uses your device to exchange traffic recorded from real, popular apps like YouTube and Spotify---effectively making it look as if you are using those apps. As a result, if an ISP tries to slow down a YouTube stream, our app would see the same behavior. We then send the same app traffic but replacing the content with randomized bytes, which prevents the ISPs from classifying the traffic. Our hypothesis is that the randomized traffic will not see application-specific shaping, but the original traffic will see it. We repeat these tests several times to rule out noise from bad network conditions and tell you at the end whether your ISP is shaping your traffic.

Is Wehe safe for my kids?

Parents don’t have much to worry about with the Wehe app, apart from allowing their child’s device to send information to a legitimate research team. This app is safe for kids.

What the Wehe research team plans to do with the information is to create a running list of recommended internet service providers, based on the results they receive. It’s important to note that Wehe only measures audio and video media streaming apps, such as YouTube and Skype, at this time.

The following is a perfect example of why the Wehe app is important. Consider apps such as FaceTime and Skype, both of which allow users to make voice and video calls.

Many internet providers also offer phone service, not necessarily video calls, but call services nonetheless. If a user runs the Wehe app and finds out that their provider slows down the Skype app on their device, this could be a clear indication of throttling, or the provider purposely slowing down bandwidth and speed for specific or targeted apps (and definitely a conflict of interest if they’re doing so with a competing product).

While Wehe app results are collected by researchers, users can also use the data to make more informed choices in service providers, especially if they find that their provider is throttling.