

Ask HN: Web Censorship, does your employer use and how do you circumvent it? - jasongullickson

On a daily basis my legitimate (as well as otherwise) use of the web is thwarted by my employer's internet censorship software.&#60;p&#62;The selection of sites blocked seems at times to be almost random.  One day a site is blocked, the next it's not and then back again.&#60;p&#62;What's your experience as a user, administrator or spectator of these systems and do you believe they are good or evil?
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Jem
My viewpoint depends entirely on what job it is you're doing. As a web
developer, it would be incredibly difficult to do my job without the Internet.
On the other hand, my partner is a technician in school and constantly battles
with teachers trying to browse facebook during lessons when they should be
teaching. Clearly the latter can have a direct impact on the quality of the
job that person is doing. (That's not to say the Internet hasn't affected the
quality of my work at times, but I'm not responsible for educating the next
generation.)

I'm a big advocate in giving workers a little bit of freedom. I think they're
more likely to feel respected, morale is going to be higher and any decent
employee is going to give you better results in the long run.

Of course, being responsible for most of the IT has it's advantages - it would
be impossible for my boss to install censoring software without me knowing.
What I know about, I can circumvent. ;)

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rodrigo
Yes they do. I constantly find blocked sites (latest google translator). I
think in a knowledge economy, blockin your knowledge workers access to the
greatest repository of knowledge mankind has created, its at best, dumb. I've
found that being able to learn quickly has given me an edge in various
enviroments, so cripling that capability only criples an organization.

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quoderat
They do censor, and I installed a covert internet connection which I pay for
myself -- Verizon FIOS.

May seem excessive, but that's just how I roll.

I believe they are completely evil, always counterproductive, and make me
likely to leave a workplace if I cannot subvert them.

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fatty
FoxyProxy

