Office Web Filters

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2006-03-06 09:48pm

Look at this!

The Websense category "Non-Traditional Religions and Occult and Folklore" is filtered.

I was looking up pictures for the "Evil Dead" Necronomicon!!

Anyone else have head-scratching content blocked at the office?

Natorgator · Post by **Natorgator** » 2006-03-07 01:14am

I work for a local school system in the IT department. All of our computers are Dells, and parts of Dell's website are blocked

Kinda makes it hard to look up stuff when troubleshooting.

Spoonist · Post by **Spoonist** » 2006-03-07 06:39am

Heh, in a friends office all website with "homosexual" and "sceptic" in them are blocked.

Luke Starkiller · Post by **Luke Starkiller** » 2006-03-07 08:59am

Yesterday www.nationstates.net was not blocked, today it is.

Lord Rog · Post by **Lord Rog** » 2006-03-07 11:19am

Someone at my workplace (Companies House Cardiff) found that they couldn't view information about adult education because the filter (CSMimesweeper) had blocked the word adult. The funniest part of it was that this was when they were running an event trying persuade more of their staff to take up evening courses in local colleges.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-03-07 11:49am

I live in a Catholic residence, and apart from the usual suspects, a friend writing a paper on HIV/AIDS couldn't continue because the word 'pregnant' was banned.

Ryushikaze · Post by **Ryushikaze** » 2006-03-07 02:19pm

I haven't had any particularly wierd filter responses, but several years ago, I basically had free reign of a school computer lab. Over the months I spent there, I learned that the firewalls were very persnickity. One computer would block one site, but the computer sitting just next to it would not, and I don't think the blocked/allowed list would stay the same for very long either.

John of the Dead · Post by **John of the Dead** » 2006-03-07 02:27pm

I tried to unsubscribe from a local politician's email list, but I was blocked from accessing his web site because it contained "Sexual Education Material." I found that strange on many levels.

NoXion · Post by **NoXion** » 2006-03-07 04:07pm

Why the hell would things like "non-traditional religions, occult and folklore" and "sexual education material" be blocked?

Flagg · Post by **Flagg** » 2006-03-07 05:23pm

For whatever reason articles on Snopes.com that contain pictures are blocked.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-03-07 06:45pm

NoXion wrote:Why the hell would things like "non-traditional religions, occult and folklore" and "sexual education material" be blocked?

If it's a morality filter, it's conceivable that 'occult' may set it off especially if it's an off-the-shelf product designed for fundie parents. 'SEXual' is a no-brainer.

NoXion · Post by **NoXion** » 2006-03-07 07:53pm

kheegan wrote:
NoXion wrote:Why the hell would things like "non-traditional religions, occult and folklore" and "sexual education material" be blocked?
If it's a morality filter, it's conceivable that 'occult' may set it off especially if it's an off-the-shelf product designed for fundie parents. 'SEXual' is a no-brainer.

That's fucking stupid. Personally, I find the idea of web filters totally disgusting, especially for children. Fucking mind controlling crap!

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-07 08:29pm

Yeah, Maddox has a lot to say about Websense.

Solauren · Post by **Solauren** » 2006-03-07 08:55pm

I couldn't load up a Cattery (Cat Breeder) website at work my boss wanted me to investigate for tax purposes (yes, pets are taxable) and I couldn't cause it contained the word pussy.
I reviewed it at home. The sentence it was in was from the owners 6 year old daughter saying "I just love all the little pussy cats"

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2006-03-07 09:15pm

NoXion wrote:
kheegan wrote:
NoXion wrote:Why the hell would things like "non-traditional religions, occult and folklore" and "sexual education material" be blocked?
If it's a morality filter, it's conceivable that 'occult' may set it off especially if it's an off-the-shelf product designed for fundie parents. 'SEXual' is a no-brainer.
That's fucking stupid. Personally, I find the idea of web filters totally disgusting, especially for children. Fucking mind controlling crap!

So you're in favor of six-year-olds being able to access ogrish.com at home because they heard from some kids at school that it was 'awesome', eh?

Metatwaddle · Post by **Metatwaddle** » 2006-03-07 09:40pm

It seems to me that not allowing "occult and non-traditional religions" is clearly preferential treatment of some religions (Christianity, etc.) over others. Is there any legal standing on which one could challenge the double standard?

NoXion · Post by **NoXion** » 2006-03-08 02:37am

Elheru Aran wrote:
NoXion wrote:
kheegan wrote: If it's a morality filter, it's conceivable that 'occult' may set it off especially if it's an off-the-shelf product designed for fundie parents. 'SEXual' is a no-brainer.
That's fucking stupid. Personally, I find the idea of web filters totally disgusting, especially for children. Fucking mind controlling crap!
So you're in favor of six-year-olds being able to access ogrish.com at home because they heard from some kids at school that it was 'awesome', eh?

What would the consequences of that be? Most likely the kid is scared/disgusted and doesn't go there again. What else could happen?

CarsonPalmer · Post by **CarsonPalmer** » 2006-03-08 06:11pm

Web filters should be permitted because, even though everyone does do it anyway, you really shouldn't be surfing the internet at work/school.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2006-03-08 06:58pm

Elheru Aran wrote:
NoXion wrote:
kheegan wrote: If it's a morality filter, it's conceivable that 'occult' may set it off especially if it's an off-the-shelf product designed for fundie parents. 'SEXual' is a no-brainer.
That's fucking stupid. Personally, I find the idea of web filters totally disgusting, especially for children. Fucking mind controlling crap! :finger:
So you're in favor of six-year-olds being able to access ogrish.com at home because they heard from some kids at school that it was 'awesome', eh?

I can't speak for NoXion, but I'm not in favour of six-year-olds doing any unsupervised web-browsing.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-08 10:26pm

Disturbing images aren't what's wrong with unsupervised browsing. Spyware and viri from shady sights are.

dragon · Post by **dragon** » 2006-03-08 11:44pm

Natorgator wrote:I work for a local school system in the IT department. All of our computers are Dells, and parts of Dell's website are blocked Kinda makes it hard to look up stuff when troubleshooting.

Same thing here we had to go to a website to download the drivers for our new equipment and the site was blocked.

Lord Poe · Post by **Lord Poe** » 2006-03-09 12:45am

Drooling Iguana wrote:I can't speak for NoXion, but I'm not in favour of six-year-olds doing any unsupervised web-browsing.

Six-year olds? I'm still fighting to keep my 63-year old mom off the net! I have visions of her sending money to a certain Nigerian prince and wait to be rewarded with millions...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-03-09 12:48am

I don't understand the mentality behind office web filters. Personally, if I were an office manager and I wanted to make sure employees weren't wasting time on the job, I would simply make sure that every employee's desk is positioned so that you can see his computer monitor from the hallway. Rule through fear.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2006-03-09 03:53am

Fuck that, you could have button cameras in each of their cubicles. That way, they aren't wary of going on such sites until one day you call them in for their monthly performance review...

"You're fired, bitch."

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2006-03-09 03:57am

The best use of a web filter is basically to protect users from themselves in a security sense. Scan incoming HTTP/FTP/mail traffic for viruses, and presto, you've reduced one infection method. Better yet it can be done transparently without needing to run anything on the user's computer.