Tightwad
11-30-2006, 07:54 AM
Scaling the walls of Web censorship
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/061128-2766.asphttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061130.CENSOR30/TPStory/National
University of Toronto, Canada.
U of T lab launches program that unblocks content in countries that filter the Internet
TORONTO -- All you can see on the video clip is a laptop computer and a man's hands. He goes to Google and enters a search: "women's issues." When he clicks on the resulting links, though, every site is blocked. He is in Iran, one of more than 40 countries that filter the Internet in some way, and one of 12 that have a pervasive filtration system that blocks content.
Now he logs onto a program labelled Psiphon and tries the Google search again. This time the results are in the tens of thousands.
"Thank you, guys," he says.
The 25-second clip plays on the laptop of Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, the birthplace of Psiphon, which officially launches tomorrow.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-11-28T211732Z_01_N28258808_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-CENSORSHIP.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5BFee d%5D-1
The Psiphon program, developed by computer experts at the University of Toronto, allows an Internet user in a country with no online curbs to set up an account for someone in a country that censors Web content, and that person can then surf the net without restrictions.
"The communities that we're helping to connect to each other have a legitimate right to exercise their human rights within this governance regime," said Ron Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which studies the interaction between human rights, technology and security issues.
... Deibert said Psiphon works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does -- China, for example.
The Canadian user would then pass on the information to the Chinese user, who would log on to the Canadian's computer and effectively use it as a server to browse the Internet without being censored by the Chinese government.
The Web traffic between the two users is encrypted and secure, so China would have difficulty tracing the usage, he said.
This is the site where you can get info and download software:
http://psiphon.civisec.org /
psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.
Anyone whose govt does not block/filter internet access can use this software to help someone in a country whose govt does. Not many of may know someone in this situation right now (I don't, for instance), but we can word of this development to reach people who can help.
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All of the above is a cut & paste from a site that I also visit. The link
may be useful to some so use as you please just be mindful that
there may be legalities involved.
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/061128-2766.asphttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20061130.CENSOR30/TPStory/National
University of Toronto, Canada.
U of T lab launches program that unblocks content in countries that filter the Internet
TORONTO -- All you can see on the video clip is a laptop computer and a man's hands. He goes to Google and enters a search: "women's issues." When he clicks on the resulting links, though, every site is blocked. He is in Iran, one of more than 40 countries that filter the Internet in some way, and one of 12 that have a pervasive filtration system that blocks content.
Now he logs onto a program labelled Psiphon and tries the Google search again. This time the results are in the tens of thousands.
"Thank you, guys," he says.
The 25-second clip plays on the laptop of Ronald Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, the birthplace of Psiphon, which officially launches tomorrow.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2006-11-28T211732Z_01_N28258808_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-CENSORSHIP.xml&WTmodLoc=InternetNewsHome_C1_%5BFee d%5D-1
The Psiphon program, developed by computer experts at the University of Toronto, allows an Internet user in a country with no online curbs to set up an account for someone in a country that censors Web content, and that person can then surf the net without restrictions.
"The communities that we're helping to connect to each other have a legitimate right to exercise their human rights within this governance regime," said Ron Deibert, director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which studies the interaction between human rights, technology and security issues.
... Deibert said Psiphon works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor Internet content to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does -- China, for example.
The Canadian user would then pass on the information to the Chinese user, who would log on to the Canadian's computer and effectively use it as a server to browse the Internet without being censored by the Chinese government.
The Web traffic between the two users is encrypted and secure, so China would have difficulty tracing the usage, he said.
This is the site where you can get info and download software:
http://psiphon.civisec.org /
psiphon is a human rights software project developed by the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies that allows citizens in uncensored countries to provide unfettered access to the Net through their home computers to friends and family members who live behind firewalls of states that censor.
Anyone whose govt does not block/filter internet access can use this software to help someone in a country whose govt does. Not many of may know someone in this situation right now (I don't, for instance), but we can word of this development to reach people who can help.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of the above is a cut & paste from a site that I also visit. The link
may be useful to some so use as you please just be mindful that
there may be legalities involved.