A World Map To Outwit Web Censors
from the go-distributed-computing-go dept
The folks at the Berkman Center at Harvard, who have been putting out plenty of information about what countries censor what information online are now putting together a distributed computing application to help them figure out what sites are blocked where. Instead of having to run tests themselves, they figure they might as well get information from people all over the world. As with any such distributed computing app, it's being compared to SETI@Home. Sounds like a good idea - though, some people might shy away from using it because (unlike things like SETI@Home) this one is actually looking at specific sites you may be visiting. Also, I wonder if there are additional dangers. Since the system is set to test whether or not you can visit certain, specific websites, anyone monitoring your computer connection may assume that you actually did visit those sites. Maybe I don't understand how the technology is set up specifically, but I could see someone installing this program on their work PC, and having it test certain porn sites - at which point, the company monitoring system accuses the user of that computer of surfing porn from work. Assuming issues like this are clearly addressed, then this sounds like a pretty good idea.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
