Why internet filtering is bad for business
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
By Paul Wallbank
As reported in SmartCompany last week the Federal Government is proceeding with trials of internet filters that will restrict Australian access to the world wide web.
The aim of internet filtering is to block child abuse sites from Australian web surfers. While the idea is well meaning, the proposal will be an additional burden on business and won’t fix the problem.
There certainly is a problem – a study by the University of California, Berkeley, found around 1% of websites contain pornographic material. With over a billion websites indexed by Google, this translates to around 10 million sites containing things you’d rather not be seen in your workplace or by your kids.
To deal with this problem, most computer operating systems, browsers and search engines have built-in adult filters, and the Federal Government provides free software for home computer users on its NetAlert website.
The new filter will go a number of steps further, with it being compulsory for internet providers to deny access to around 10,000 sites, a number that falls dramatically short of the 10 million estimated pornographic sites and who knows how many terrorist, gambling and euthanasia sites that will probably be added to the list.
The task of deciding which of the billion websites to be blacked out will fall upon the Classification Board. In 2005-6, their 65 staff considered 9425 movies, video games and websites. To say the board will require a massive injection of resources is an understatement.
Under the current proposals, the banned list would be secret, and it’s uncertain if your business inadvertently found itself on the list how an appeal mechanism would work.
One serious risk for business is that many of the people who post illegal and inappropriate material do so on others’ computers to avoid detection. Hacked personal computers and corporate servers are frequently used by criminal gangs for exactly this purpose.
There is also the risk of sites being blocked for political reasons. Canberra has form on this, with the Federal Police using spurious copyright reasons to close down Richard Neville’s spoof John Howard site in 2006. A staffer of the present Federal Government indirectly pressured a prominent critic of the filtering proposal through his industry association.
So there are real risks to your website if someone in your company does something illegal, messes up a security setting, or simply upsets the wrong person in a minister’s office.
However it’s not the censorship aspects of filtering that should be the main concern for businesses. The indirect consequences will be deep and far reaching for Australian commerce.
The immediate effect is filtering will increase internet costs. Given 98% of businesses use the internet, the increased ISP charges will be a tax on almost every Australian enterprise.
Business relies upon fast, reliable communications. Trials to date of the filtering systems show a decrease of speed between 2% and 84%. The filters will also add another level of complexity to the system, which in turn reduces reliability.
Those additional costs will become another barrier to entry. At the very time the Federal Government is struggling with competition in the communications industry, this proposal will eliminate many smaller operators and favour the larger incumbent providers.
Overall, this proposal will add costs and reduce the reliability of one of the modern economy’s critical business tools. The real tragedy is the filters simply won’t work.
Paul Wallbank speaks and writes on how business owners can meet the challenges of the new economy. A business owner himself, Paul has spent over 15 years helping businesses achieve their potential. He has two computer advice websites; PC Rescue and IT Queries, and appears monthly on ABC Local Radio’s Nightlife program and Sydney 702 weekends.
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Comments
Richard Jary writes: You incorrectly write that it is up the classification board to decide what is blacked out. That is incorrect as they only have jurisdiction on what is published within Australia. The blacklist is currently maintained by ACMA, so which minor public servant gets the job of surfing the web looking for something they can add (as well as responding to any ministerial hints about "unwanted" material). If it was a transparent process, the material had been vetted against Australian standards then maybe. Or rules by a court. But not a secret list. No way.
Paul Wallbank replies: Thanks for your comment, Richard. One of the big concerns about filtering is exactly how an appeals process or independent oversight of a blacklist will work. ACMA refers any complaint about a website to the classification board. The board then classifies the site under the same system used for computer games and movies. If the board refuses classification or gives the site an X18+ rating, then ACMA adds the site to the blacklist. The details are on the ACMA and Classification Board websites.
Tony Johansen writes: There is another element that impacts on business and not mentioned here, but an extremely important one for business – the frustration factor. Web users tend to click away from slow loading pages very quickly. As an increasing percentage of customers come from the web (for me it is over 80%) I am all too aware of the need for my web site pages to load fast. I cannot afford to lose customers because impatience causes someone to move on. A difference of just 5% can mean less profitability and could easily force marginal businesses out of business. We already have a problem in that there are too many people still on dial up speeds and experience shows that as people move to broadband their online purchasing and seeking of information increases dramatically. Speed counts.
Danu Poyner writes: Good article and great to see this getting out among the business community. Is there anyone in Australia who will actually benefit from the net filter in any way?
Campbell Corser writes: Good point Tony raises about the frustration factor. Any fool can tell you without checking the research that the thresholds for customer abandonment are growing ever shorter on websites. Fact is, people will not stay around to wait for your web page to load.
Garry Clarke writes: Great to see this obnoxious, oppressive, totally unnecessary and absolutely unworkable piece of policy is starting to make it into the mainstream business media.
To set one thing straight, the only reason adult material is a problem for business and responsible parents is that the same moral minority who are supporting the Goverment’s push for this draconian measure are the same people who successfully lobbied around the world to force ICANN (the organisation that controls domain name extensions globally) to reject the adult industry’s calls for the establishment of the .xxx domain extension.
Had that passed then 99% of adult material would have been easily blocked by simply adding the .xxx domain extension to the business and home filtering products block list, and that would have been the end of it.
As the Government is not pushing for a reversal of the ICANN decision on this highly viable alternative, and in light of Senator Conroys misleading conduct regarding the nature of internet filtering in countries like the UK, NZ, Finland, Canada etc, his efforts to gag ISP staff who are speaking out against this proposal on technical grounds, his absurd claim that all who oppose Labor’s filtering plan must support paedophilia, his deceit regarding the opt-out options, and his recent revelation that the filter will also block so called “inappropriate content” such as sites that contain information on subjects such as anorexia and euthanasia, I believe we have every right to question the Government’s true motives for inflicting a Chinese, Iranian and North Korean style of ISP level internet filtering on us, particularly as that will make Australia the laughing stock of the democratic world.
As to the extent of the problems this proposal will cause business (and consumers) in addition to the speed reductions etc, the most pertinent concern is related to security for e-commerce and banking transactions. In effect the filtering will create what is called a “man in the middle attack”, in simplistic terms (no offence intended) that means that all the details such as usernames, passwords, account numbers and credit card info etc will all be exposed.
In addition to this, and Paul touched on it briefly, access to your web sites could be blocked even if you have not said something inappropriate or upset the wrong person in some mindless minister’s office.
This is likely to occur for a couple of reasons, like you are a resort business that has photos of guests in and around a pool, because the filter looks for skin tones in images and cannot distinguish between these harmless photos and adult content, access to your site will be blocked. Senator Conroy bragged about how clever this aspect of the filter would be at the policy launch before the election; in my opinion, with this sort of comment all he did was highlight his ignorance about the way the internet works.
Another reason for your site being blocked could be as simple as you have details of a breast cancer fund raising initiative on your web site, because the word breast is a word a young teen might use to find adult content on the net. Guess what? Your site will also be blocked.
Yet another issue is that what many businesses don’t realise is that on the same server their website is hosted there could be thousands of other websites owned by a myriad of businesses. If any one of the sites on that server has what the Government deems as inappropriate content then not only is that site blocked but so is yours and every other site on the same server.
The unanswered questions and ever changing details about the Government’s filtering proposal create enormous threats to Australian businesses on a number of fronts, and as such it is imperative that the Australian business community speak out against this proposal. Further details on the actions you can take can be found at the No Clean Feed website.
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