NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Global ISP content filtering information (from IP)
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Lauren, In addition to what is at that location, I would point out that the organization that is associated with our (Canada) firewall just got a massive federal investment. You can find the details at, http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/bk/2005/bg20050124-eng.aspx . It has also been bragged about repeatedly in the house of commons and can mentions be found in hansard. "$3.5 million over five years was committed to fund Cybertip.ca, Canada's national tipline for reporting the sexual exploitation of children on the Internet. This initiative fulfills the Government of Canada's commitment, made in the February 2004 Speech from the Throne to do more to ensure the safety of our children. The Strategy is supported by the reinstatement of child protection legislation, Bill C-2, on October 8, 2004, which will help reduce the risk of child sexual exploitation of children. Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada is leading efforts to implement the Strategy." I still find it questionable whether or not this monitoring system is consistent with our privacy and telecommunications acts, as I am not aware of any review by the privacy commissioner or specific authorization by the CRTC (an arms length, independent, regulator) which is arguably required for any system that interferes with traffic under s.36 of the act. To my knowledge, the only time the CRTC was asked to authorize the blocking of these types of sites, they declined to permit their voluntary blocking. Some details @ http://www.thestar.com/comment/columnists/article/95518 As for the technical details, these systems appear to work by using something similar to a dnsbl, wherein if the subscriber tries to access an ip on the list, their traffic will be further scrutinized for blocking. They claim to have the ability to block at the url level, but that not all urls are monitored. Details of exactly how these systems work or what exactly they block is nearly impossible to scrutinize and this lack of transparency, and oversight has lead to a lot of criticism of the firewall. In recent months, they have taken a number of steps to address these criticisms, including better integration with law enforcement and the judiciary. Hope that helps add to the background, Kevin McArthur Lauren Weinstein wrote: ------- Forwarded Message ________________________________________ From: Seth Finkelstein [sethf@sethf.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 4:39 PM To: David Farber; ip Subject: libertus.net - ISP Censorware "Voluntary" / Mandatory ISP "Voluntary" / Mandatory Filtering http://libertus.net/censor/ispfiltering-gl.html "This page contains information about ISP-level filtering systems implemented, by various ISPs in various countries, to prevent accidental access to child sexual abuse material on web pages/sites. It has been researched and produced in the context of the Australian Federal Labor Government's 2008 "plan" to mandate that Australian ISPs block access to a vastly larger type and quantity of web pages." - -- Seth Finkelstein Consulting Programmer http://sethf.com Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/ Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php |