One of the more tedious arguments used by people who favour compulsory Internet filtering and other forms of censorship is “People who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear from these systems”. In his LCA keynote today, security researcher Jacob Appelbaum highlighted a simple point that’s worth making when people say that: if you have nothing to hide, why are you wearing clothes and why are there curtains on your house? More »
The news that the Liberal Party would block any attempts to introduce mandatory internet filtering has attracted much attention since it emerged yesterday afternoon. However, a lack of detail on what alternatives might be proposed, and the lurking question of what will happen to the NBN, mean that advancing the cause of technology with your vote is still difficult. More »
Proposals for web censorship might be very poorly conceived and planned, but not everything relating to controlling content has to be so stupid. Rules requiring a “parental lock” on TV equipment sold in Australia are a good case in point. More »
Thinking of voting for the Greens but don’t want any preferences flowing to pro-cenosrship minister Senator Stephen Conroy? As part of its ongoing Fight The Filter campaign, Gizmodo has a comprehensive explanation of why voting for the Greens above the line in the Victorian senate won’t see any of your preferences directed his way in practice. I’m personally still planning to fill out all the numbers on my own Senate voting form — that’s the only way to balance my views on a lot of issues — but if that seems too much hassle, it’s well worth a read. [Gizmodo]
We’ve already had a switch of Prime Minister today, but almost as soon as that was announced, Nick over at Gizmodo kicked off a series of posts arguing for a change that could make even more difference to how technology is treated at a federal level: switching Senator Kate Lundy into the communications and IT portfolio. More »
Google offers SafeSearch to stop offensive content popping up on your workplace computer or in front of the kids, and Microsoft’s rival search engine Bing has a similarly-labelled option. But while Google’s system can distinguish between images and text in videos, Bing seems to take a much less subtle approach: if a video sounds remotely raunchy, it gets blocked regardless of actual content. More »
Legislation to enable mandatory censorship legislation will hit Parliament next month. To highlight the issue during the week of Australian Day, Electronic Frontiers Australia is backing a ‘blackout’ campaign encouraging people to darken their social networking profile pictures and web sites. More »
It’s clear Lifehacker readers think the plan to make Internet censorship mandatory in Australia in 2010 is a deeply stupid idea. While there may be ways of working around the filter, not having the filter would clearly be a better idea. How can you effectively make your views known? More »
We won’t see mandatory Internet filtering until mid-2010, but even without the details still being worked out, it’s clear that anyone with a modicum of technical know-how will be able to bypass it. More »
The government yesterday announced plans to introduce legislation requiring all RC-rated material online to be blocked by all ISPs, effectively declaring its trial of mandatory filtering a success. More »
