Japan's asahi.com reports (english - here) that a working group from the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, published a report concluding that DPI may be used by ISPs for behavioral advertising. See coverage by Asiajin, here.
Behavioral advertising, offered in the past by US based Nebuad and Adzilla, and UK based Phorm, was not accepted well in their home countries, mainly because it was deployed without disclosing it to subscribers. The business case was to share advertising revenues between the ISP and the these companies. The ISP provides the facilities and subscribers base and Nebuad/Phorm the networking equipment that track the subscriber's activity (usually "anonymously" - without keeping record of the subscribers activity) and relations with advertisers.
However, the business case could be only justified with large volumes - so if the subscribers are required to opt-in (register) for the service - there just not going to be enough traffic, clicks and therefore revenues. Opt-out could be a better way, possibly leaving enough subscribers exposed to the process.
According to Asiajin, the Japanese report - "concludes that such technology cannot be used without constituting a breach of private communications if it does not first receive approval from the user (p. 58). However, elsewhere in the report it is stated that an opt-out mechanism must be in place (p. 59), suggesting that the system need not be opt-in." (the report is here, in Japanese).
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