Ads by TechWords
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletters
For more info on a specific newsletter, click the title. Details will be displayed in a new window.
Computerworld Daily News (First Look and Wrap-Up)
Computerworld Blogs Newsletter
The Weekly Top 10
More E-Mail Newsletters 
Mike Elgan's picture
Mike Elgan

The World Is My Office

Censorship with your free Wi-Fi?

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Denver International is the biggest airport in the world to offer free Wi-Fi. But now a Denver newspaper reports that the connection is censored. The airport actually blocks blogs like BoingBoing.net, perezhilton.com and other "potentially racy sites."

Airport officials say they'd rather deal with complaints about censorship than complaints about people viewing objectionable content on their laptops.

The Seattle Times points out that Denver International Airport stores sell hard-core pornographic magazines, but that the Sports Illustrated swimsuit site online is blocked.

The Vanity Fair magazine web site is also reportedly blocked by the Denver censorship program.

The ISP Planet blog says the airport is using the same kind of censorship technology employed by the governments of Kuwait, Oman and Sudan. The filtering product in use, according to -- wait for it -- the "Talking Heads" singer David Byrne, is SmartFilter from Secure Computing.

If an airport provides free Wi-Fi, does that mean it's OK for them to censor your connection? Is it OK for airports to provide Wi-Fi -- free or not free -- and NOT censor it?

What's your opinion?

[Like this blog? Subscribe to the RSS feed here!]

What People Are Saying

Rate this
Rated +15
219 Votes

Use VPN to bypass Internet restrictions

Use VPN to bypass Internet restrictions
http://www.blacklogic.com

Rate this
Rated -13
349 Votes

VPN is the answer

I use Surfbouncer personal vpn to avoid all of this and also to keep my connection secure.

Rate this
Rated +20
432 Votes

If we approached what we see

If we approached what we see as a "visual eating," we would avoid labeling what we view as good or bad, but what is healthy or not as healthy. Artificially flavored/colored, super sugary snacks aren't "evil"; they simply aren't the most nutritious food choice out there. By making any issues moral ones, we lose sight of being fully responsible for all our choices---And the moment we do that, we aren't exercising our freedom very wisely---if at all.

We are what we eat.
As a society, we are what we eat.
And then we have to live in it.

I vote for a balanced and highly varied diet, and one that is eaten openly and shared openly. Furthermore, if something has to be snuck on the sly, with beady little eyes shifting this way and that, perhaps you shouldn't be doing it.

Rate this
Rated -33
469 Votes

Slow news day?

Censorship has been around since this country was founded. About time you learned to live with it.

Rate this
Rated +19
479 Votes

That's why you need...

Things like this are exactly why you need a third-party VPN provider.

But if they're blocking outgoing connections on PPTP ports then you're pretty much screwed unless you setup VNC on your home machine on a standard port (80/8080/whatever).

Rate this
Rated +30
472 Votes

It's not technically free,

It's not technically free, as you have to sit through an ad before you can do anything. It also takes a while before you can actually do anything. All in all, it's a frustrating setup.

Rate this
Rated -4
466 Votes

Proxy?

Why not just use a proxy while you're there or better yet, remote into your home system so that you're really not using their system for anything at all. I'll be there later today and I'll be sure to test this.

Rate this
Rated +2
476 Votes

Not OK

If you want to bypass any type of blocking, you could use many of the software products available, including Hotspot Shield (http://www.hotspotshield.com).

Rate this
Rated +13
461 Votes

Well, considering that the

Well, considering that the Wi-Fi is a convenience that they're offering at no charge, I don't really object to them censoring which sites can be blocked. Having had the experience once of sitting next to a guy on an airplane who was watching amateur porn, I think I am fine with people not having access to sites that could potentially offend.

Rate this
Rated -18
442 Votes

I agree. The internet

I agree. The internet connection belongs to them. They have the right to control what is viewed.