Experts find paths around Internet firewalls

Researchers in Canada may have discovered a way for people to get around government firewalls that block certain items online.  According to the CNN article found here: http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/11/30/internet.firewalls.reut/index.htmlthis development will let users hop over government firewalls allowing potentially unfettered internet access in countries where the country regulates content and how residents use the web (see my posts about Wikipedia in China).    The program that will allow users to bypass the firewalls is called Psiphon and it was developed by internet experts at the University of Toronto.  This program will allow internet users in countries with no online curbs to set up an account for someone in a country that censors Web content and that person can then surf the Web without restrictions.

 Psiphon was released last week and could be the thorn in the side of governments that already monitor Web activity of its citizens.  “It does conflict with some sovereign states’ values, but there are competing legal norms at work,” says Ron Deibert, Director of the University of Toronto’s Citizens Lab. Recently and over the past few years,  human rights groups have accused    the usual suspects (China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, and Egypt) of clamping down on unfettered internet use, by blocking websites linked to or operated by opposition or independence groups.  Human Rights Watch says there is a misconception that the internet will make people free.  This is not true and is evidence by the blocking of certain websites  in certain places (Wikipedia in China). 

How does this program work?  According to Ron Deibert, it works by first allowing a person in a country like Canada that does not censor internet content  to set up a user name and a password for a person in a country that does (China here once again).   The Canadian user then passes the information to the Chinese usser who would log on to the Canadian’s computer and effectively use it as  a server to browse the internet without being censored.  The web traffic is encryptic and secure, therefore making tracking of the source and usage extremely difficult. 

 Overall, this sounds like a good program and it can be useful for those people that are being censored in certain countries, but this program could be considered illegal.  If somewhere were to get caught using this program consequences could be dire.  As I blogged about several times before, it is important for countries to allow free speech and free speech is the internet.  The usual suspects listed above have continually blocked the internet and certain sites from its citizens and that is censorship in its purest form.  I like this program and it appears to work and be useful, but countries and Human Rights organizations need to continue to work to allow a free and unfettered internet.  Citizens of these countries deserve this basic right to free speech.