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Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

goawaycameron.co.uk

71–80 of 166 posts

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#71
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the EU convention lists internet access as a human right. They're not stopping you from accessing the internet, they're essentially just giving people access to filtering software.

I think the dystopian worry isn't that they're giving individuals access to filtering software. That would be a worthy goal. The real worry is that this system is Government controlled and built into everyone's internet connection. Personally, I'm expecting it to soon have three settings, not two: a) Family friendly browsing (opt-in) b) Access to more adult sites (opt-out) c) Blocking of whatever the government deems…

Or alternatively that it'll be used in court cases or job interviews. What happens when schools start demanding that all their teachers "opt-in"? At a recent obscenity trial in UK, a prosecutor claimed that people who attend sexual health clinics engage in more risky behaviour. What happens if you're asking in court if you've "opted in" to porn?

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#72
Let me get this straight: Instead of entrusting my ISP with my preference for porn, I'm entrusting you.

I fail to see how this is any better. You're a recent compsci graduate and I'm sure you have good intentions. Can you explain how your "private proxy" servers work, so that it's infeasable for an attacker, or even yourself, to know which websites I've accessed?

ProTip: Saying "we don't store logs" doesn't really give me the proof I need.

This isn't how the internet is supposed to work.

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#73
post #30

As much as this is a brilliant idea (opting out could possibly be recorded) I think the general consensus of the government right now needs to change, I seem to recall a hacker game from years ago (maybe 'Hacker Evolution') which described in it's prologue: "The world has been divided; governments censor and restrict access to the internet that was, hackers and technologists moved away from traditional means of commu…

How do we incentivize people to fight back against every single law that could potentially harm privacy or force censorship? The people making these laws have every bit of incentive to do so, while the regular people have limited willpower, limited resources and limited time. Sure we can pull off another SOPA blackout, but I don't think we can do it consistently. They'll keep proposing harmful laws and we can't stop…

The solution is to make those that support these bill pay the price (as high as possible - in votes, revenue, public image,...) for it. One by one...

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#74
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the dystopian worry isn't that they're giving individuals access to filtering software. That would be a worthy goal. The real worry is that this system is Government controlled and built into everyone's internet connection. Personally, I'm expecting it to soon have three settings, not two: a) Family friendly browsing (opt-in) b) Access to more adult sites (opt-out) c) Blocking of whatever the government deems…

There are different filters. Some of them already have granularity. > c) Blocking of whatever the government deems objectionable (no choice). This already exists. The IWF provide sites that must be blocked and ISPs block those sites. It also happens when a company uses a court order to force and ISP to block a site.

The difference being that this is centrally controlled. Because of this, it's speed of censorship will be much quicker.

Places I expect this to block in future:

1. Discussions of how to bypass the filter (eg Tor)

2. News articles the Government doesn't like (eg discussions barred by injunction such as Ryan Giggs)

3. Information during times of disorder (eg the tweeting by people involved in the Arab Spring).

4. Whatever the government of the day deems extreme porn/extremist/dissident. The future internet won't come with optional DA notices. Any new discussion like Snowden simply won't appear.

Essentially, it's a selective kill-switch for the internet, and I think Edward Snowden said it best. This is about power, not safety. This is a mechanism for the establishment to protect itself.

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#75

For what it's worth, we bought the lease for our office from a firm who's business it was to provide filtering solutions to schools. Upon moving in, we decided to take a look at what was on the stacks of hardware that had just been left in piles here. To our complete lack of surprise, they were full of the personal details of children, their browsing histories, and even poorly configured squid caches full of things l…

> Needless to say, disks were removed and turned into appropriate bits of broken metal. Were we bad actors,

You were bad actors. A serious criminal offence had been committed and you not only didn't report it, but you destroyed the evidence.

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#76
post #2

Hah, this is weird. I created GAC, and submitted this a few hours ago, but got not much love. And now you have some :) Anyways, the server is having a serious hug of love. Things are slowed down now. Anyways, AMA!

PG, if you are reading this, I sent you an email. I first built this with getgom.com (Singapore), its moderately successful, but the market in Singapore is too small. With this, I understand that technologies of proven concept, when applied to a large market, can work effectively well.

As a programmer, this year, I launched 7 projects, this is one of them. The rest are of random successes. I would like to get in contact, cheers.

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC even the small providers have to implement filtering with the IWF blacklist, so there's no way to get a filter-free experience.

There's a UK ISP called Andrews and Arnold that will give you a filter free experience with the caveat that you have to filter your own network, but they are not really a home ISP as such.

Many people think that The Rev is a first class arsehole. Potential customers are warned to carefully research their choice of ISP.

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#79
post #59
post #2

Hah, this is weird. I created GAC, and submitted this a few hours ago, but got not much love. And now you have some :) Anyways, the server is having a serious hug of love. Things are slowed down now. Anyways, AMA!

@nubela: if this service can be used to bypass BBC content restrictions, you're going to have a bad time. A lot of BBC content can only be viewed within the UK, so if you can use GAC to access this content abroad, the following will happen: - they can contact nominet to get your personal data - you will likely get a letter from their lawyer - you may get your .co.uk domain taken away - you may be asked to hand over y…

Have you got any precedents for this happening?

Re: Go away Cameron – Bypass UK's porn filter

#80
post #8
post #3

Why not just opt out of the filter? Or use one of the many smaller ISPs who don't implement the filter in the first place? You don't need plugins/extensions.

One opt out I've seen requires a credit card. One might not have one. Before you ask, me. I have an internet connection, but no credit cards. Not all ISP cover all of the UK. You also assume that the person wanting to bypass the ISP filter is the same person controlling the connection. So, say a 16yo wants to explore homosexuality, but is not ready to discuss this with parents who simply didn't bother opting out beca…

> Not all ISP cover all of the UK.

If they use BT Wholesale backhaul then their coverage is exactly the same as BT Retail.

ID Net, A&A, Zen, many others will give you as much coverage as the big boys even in Market 1 exchanges ( only BT Wholesale provision ).

If you're in a Market 2 or 3 area ( lots of competing backhaul ) then there's basically no restriction to how many ISPs from which you can choose.

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