June 08, 2009

China: Web surf at your own risk

Hardware makers in China now have an uncomfortable choice: Ship Web filtering software with every PC, or stop selling PCs. You want to block one site from list A or two sites from list B?

Don't look now, but China is messing with the Interwebs again.

As first reported by the Wall Street Journal, PC makers wishing to sell their hardware on that side of the great firewall after July 1 will be required to install a program called "Green Dam-Youth Escort" that keeps the machine from accessing illicit sites.

[ Stay up to date on Robert X. Cringely's musings and observations with InfoWorld's Notes from the Underground newsletter. ]

Naturally, the Chinese officials say the program is there strictly to protect China's youth from the scourge of Internet porn. (Stop me if you've heard that one before.) Users wishing to log onto the Net must first access a government controlled database of blocked sites, which will route them around any content Beijing deems too naughty. China already blocks scads of sites, but savvy users have been able to circumvent the great firewall using things like proxy servers. Green Dam blunts that workaround. Per the Journal:

The government notice about the requirement says it is aimed at "constructing a green, healthy, and harmonious internet environment, and preventing harmful information on the internet from influencing and poisoning young people".

What exactly constitutes poison? Any site the Chinese government doesn't care for. Last week that included Twitter, Bing, Flickr, and Hotmail, which apparently got blocked so people couldn't use them to share their disgust memories of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre incident. (Those sites got unblocked this week.) And, of course, any site having to do with Guns N' Roses.

Worse, according to the Journal, the software can be used to collect user data, though it doesn't say what kind of data. Surfing histories, most likely. Wanna to bet that people who try to visit sites Chinese cybercops have covered in yellow tape end up on a list somewhere -- or worse?

PC makers now have the lovely choice of shipping/installing the Web filter with each new machine they sell or finding another market with 1.3 billion people willing to buy their stuff. Not a good position for anyone to be in.

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CHL_TX_COM 8-Jun-09 1:26pm
"Good thing we live over here in a free country where that sort of thing can never happen, right?" The Obamamessiah has already shut down profitable Chrysler dealerships for making contributions to the 'wrong' party. Next, he wants to run healthcare... Won't that be fun when he gets to cross-reference donor lists with medical records? At least he's given my business a tremendous stimulus!
Hiram Q. Pustule 8-Jun-09 1:33pm
I'm no fan of censorship nor the Chinese government, but I'm hard pressed to work up any outrage at schools, libraries, and private corporations in the US installing filters on their internet pipes in an attempt to ensure that the internet is only used for its intended purpose within that context. Why, for example, should your employer pay for more capacity than he actually needs to transfer business-related data in and out of the workplace, to provide a few employees their mid-day gaming or streaming media fix? Why should a middle school allow unfiltered access to material that is, at best, a huge distraction from the academic purposes for which its shareholders pay their taxes? Ultimately, it seems to me that if you are receiving something of value, the price tag of which is being subsidized by your neighbors or your employer, it's not very seemly to complain about their decision to determine just how much of that thing of value they're giving you, so long as they aren't singling you out for special treatment.
Carl Street 11-Jun-09 5:40am
BTW Silicon, Mom called to say she does NOT like your attitude and just wait until your father comes home... :)
tcapun 22-Jun-09 4:13pm
Here's a thought. Sell those PC's with a built-in filter that prevents access to www.*.gov.cn that way, the communists can't even be accessed on a Green Day.

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