[ilago]

Originally Posted by Florence

Reading this in the register today and it really has you thinking is this really the path our government wants us to head.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has admitted cutting a deal with the Chinese to allow the blocking of press access to some sensitive websites during the forthcoming Beijing games - despite previous assurances there would be no such censorship.

It would seem that they are heading that way with the allowing of Phorm as even if they don't authorise this type of use on the internet how can they be 100% sure that Phorm doesn't start to do this?

I originally found out about Phorm when researching the system the Australian Government is planning to put into place. Our Government has been conducting tests on this level of filtering since 2005-2006. There is nothing commercial about it, it will be under the control of the Government but placed in the ISPs switching equipment in the same way that Phorm and NebuAd and the others are.

The Australian one is sold to the community as a porn filter and as protection for children. It is also proposed that it is opt-out. The range of sites to be blocked has yet to be published. It's censorship in any case. Purely political to placate a single member of our Senate who happens to hold the balance of power and is a member of a somewhat puritanical religious group. It is still in testing in lab conditions.

Dephormation Pete has a copy of the Government report to have a look at when he's got time. While it's not exactly the same issue as Phorm and Nebuad, it is almost the same equipment. There are a number of Australians that are not happy about this as you'd expect. It is another use of DPI and demonstrates the other possibilities. It would dovetail nicely into some of the anti-porn rhetoric of your government.

There's a strong possibility that the management of the filtering could be outsourced to a commercial organisation already in situ in an ISP's network and switching.