
To censor the internet, 10 countries use Netsweeper filtering technology - jonbaer
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/citizen-lab-netsweeper-internet-filtering-tech-censorship-1.4631243
======
jeena
I live in a small city on the west coast of Sweden and we basically have only
one bigger IT company which offers jobs which I find interesting from a
engineering point of view.

Sadly they produce hard- and software which is used by China for deep package
inspection which is one part of their great firewall.

I morally can't bring myself to apply for a job there. Therefor I had to fird
a job in Gothenburg to where I have to commute for 1 hour in the morning and 1
hour in the evening every day.

~~~
driverdan
What company? Name and shame.

~~~
therein
It was Netintact if I had to guess.

[https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a...](https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=27408330)

~~~
jeena
Yes.

------
samfriedman
From the article:

> _The UAE allegedly uses a preset category called "alternative lifestyles" to
> block websites of LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, news, and educational
> resources, including Human Rights Campaign and The International Lesbian,
> Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. The category is described by
> Netsweeper as a filter for content relating to "the full range of non-
> traditional sexual practices, interests and orientations."_

The preset in question is detailed on Netsweeper's site (ctrl+F for
"alternative lifestyles"):
[https://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/6.0/Policy_Management/0...](https://helpdesk.netsweeper.com/docs/6.0/Policy_Management/06-PM-
Categories/Category_Definitions.htm) Quote:

    
    
      This includes sites that reference topics on habits or
      behaviors related to social relations, dress,
      expressions, or recreation that are important enough 
      to significantly influence the lives of a sector of 
      the population. It can include the full range of non
      traditional sexual practices, interests and 
      orientations. Some sites may contain graphic images 
      or sexual material with no pornographic intent.
    
      Examples:
      http://denypagetests.netsweeper.com/category/catno/41
      http://gayguide.net
      http://veganica.com
      http://barefooters.org
      http://eatveg.com
      http://freegan.info
    

So beyond the question of "our customers may customize our product for this
kind of filtering but that's not our responsibility", the company itself does
also provide tools in the product to do things the researchers in the article
are opposing as unethical.

~~~
bscphil
Veganism is now an "alternative lifestyle"? That's a bit extreme. Or is it a
non-traditional sexual practice too?

~~~
burkaman
It's a "non traditional interest". Like barefooters.org, which is just about
hiking, running, and living with no shoes on.

------
tialaramex
Work that makes this sort of censorship harder, by forcing censors to knock
out all access to big chunks of the Internet, or give up includes:

[https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5246/](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5246/)
to be updated later this year with: [https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-
ietf-tls-tls13/](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-tls13/) and
the future development of: [https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-
sni-encrypti...](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-tls-sni-
encryption/)

On the other hand, we have ETSI's TS 103 523-2 "(Middlebox protocol") based on
TLS 1.2 and still far from finished

[https://docbox.etsi.org/CYBER/CYBER/Open/Latest_Drafts/CYBER...](https://docbox.etsi.org/CYBER/CYBER/Open/Latest_Drafts/CYBER-0027-2v008-Middlebox-
security-protocol-part2-public-version.pdf)

The idea in the Middlebox protocol is that you agree (or more likely "agree")
to have one or more middleboxes intercept everything on your encrypted
connections. They can read it, modify it, censor pieces, and the protocol's
authors have persuaded themselves that since this has your "consent" it's all
fine and this is even an improvement in some sense. Of course their stated use
cases say things like "Compliance with securities laws at Financial
institution" or "Malware protection on home network" not "Bigotry against gay
people by theocrats" or "Censorship of political opinions in a police state".
Funny how that goes.

------
deepspace
I have been wondering if it would be feasible to create a consortium of
ethical technology companies, who would maintain a "blacklist" of corporations
who behave unethically.

Every member of the consortium would then pledge to never hire anyone who has
ever worked for a blacklisted company. That way, there would be an extra
disincentive for people to take part in unethical business practices since
that could harm their employment prospects irreparably.

~~~
burkaman
That would be illegal almost everywhere in the US. Also on a practical level,
I think that would backfire. Lower level employees with less leverage will
take the best job they can get, and then find themselves on the blacklist,
essentially forced to work for unethical companies for the rest of their
careers. It might make more sense to encourage poaching from unethical
companies, so that employees are encouraged to leave.

[https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-
books/employee-...](https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-
books/employee-rights-book/chapter10-9.html)

------
CM30
Could the answer be to disallow companies from selling products to these
regimes? Or even just to make it mandatory for companies to consider human
rights and laws in their country when operating abroad, so selling to a regime
or individual who breaks them would be illegal?

Seems like that could stop stuff like this stone dead, and make it very hard
for tyrannical regimes to get any good technology at all.

~~~
loceng
Unfortunately then they will simply move abroad to somewhere they can operate,
assuming the employees want to live in those locations - and assuming the
employees can't work offset in Canada.

~~~
fra
That's alright. "But somebody's going to do it, why not me" is a slippery
slope to evil.

~~~
loceng
I agree.

------
my123
Interesting that Turkey uses a very primitive blocking system, without relying
on such software. (tested it when I was there for vacation)

~~~
reaperducer
The first time I went to Turkey, I was surprised how many of the web sites I
visited regularly were blocked.

I guess watching 8-Bit Guy on YouTube makes me subversive.

~~~
my123
Their filter seems to be a bit amateur-ish, not what I expected first-hand at
all.

[https://twitter.com/never_released/status/988378651644301313](https://twitter.com/never_released/status/988378651644301313)

------
reorged
It looks like Waterloo Ontario has its own little cluster of surveillance tech
with Sandvine and Netsweeper leading the way.

------
hapticz
taking 100,000 years to emerge from a primal society of upright hominids to a
diffuse and varied clanish tribes, each with its own tailored behavior
constraints, is not easily disrupted. expecting another, violently defended
region, to accept at face value what another region of peoples deems
'acceptable' is quite naive, humans dont like to change if it means relearning
a completely different way of life. pecking orders remain intact, even as
'ownership' of areas passes on from one generation to the next. in addition to
the logarythmic increase in populations demanding the same priviledge of what
was once plentiful and abundant resources, and theres no end to squabbling and
elbowing amongst the hordes for the 'leaders' to settle. its only going to get
worse, even as the communication networks increase the melting together.

------
m-p-3
Hopefully the Canadian government will reclassify their software as "dual use"
(technology that can be used for perfectly benign purposes, but also abused)
and regulate its exportation.

That kind of software shouldn't be used as a tool of censorship.

------
reiichiroh
Vietnam was relatively unfiltered when I was there this year. Will be
interesting to see how long before it has a comprehensive firewall like China.

------
ausjke
the morality of business is hard to define sometimes, that's what I saw for
those violent game makers too, yes they make lots of money, but are those
right things to do?

there are better and right-er way to make a living

~~~
ajeet_dhaliwal
Shooting non existent virtual enemies and pixels affects no one vs blocking
millions of people access to information.

~~~
ausjke
some students are impacted by those games and could not focus and think
deeply. While violent games do not produce killers in real life, many if not
all young killers are heavy violent game players.

