T-Mobile's Optional Censorship Falls Down

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T-Mobile's Optional Censorship Falls Down

Posted by timothy on Friday March 23, 2012 @02:25PM from the at-least-they're-asking-first dept.

An anonymous reader writes "T-Mobile USA offers a 'feature' to restrict access to certain kinds of content. This is called Web Guard. Supposedly Web Guard is supposed to inhibit access to content that falls under certain categories. The Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), developed a tool to detect what sites were being censored. Amongst them were political news sites, foreign sports news sites and other sites that should not have been censored." It's quite an eclectic bunch of sites that are blocked, but then censorware tends to break in interesting ways, even when it's not by design.

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Why shouldn't Newgrounds be on that list? by Dwedit · 2012-03-23 14:29 · Score: 4, Interesting

Why shouldn't Newgrounds be on that list? Newgrounds is full of crappy porn "games" and other adult content. Blocking Newgrounds makes just about as much sense as blocking 4chan.
1. Re:Why shouldn't Newgrounds be on that list? by stms · 2012-03-23 14:37 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Crappy adult games? Orgasm Girl is the best game I've ever played. What other game do you win when you give a girl an orgasm besides uhm... actual sex.
2. Re:Why shouldn't Newgrounds be on that list? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-23 14:56 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Those aren't girls, honey.
3. Re:Why shouldn't Newgrounds be on that list? by interval1066 · 2012-03-23 15:11 · Score: 2
  
  I hear a sharp *swoosh* as the point screams passed your head...
  
  --
  Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I ran into that by c1t1z3nk41n3 · 2012-03-23 14:49 · Score: 4, Informative

When I switched my T-Mobile Sim from a contract to a prepaid sim it automatically enabled this 'feature'. I didn't notice until it blocked access to a 2nd Amendment forum. The process for getting it disabled was fairly annoying as well. They wanted all kinds of odd information from me to verify my age. I suppose they were doing a public records lookup. The guy on the phone said it's because children can buy a prepay sim. If AT&T wasn't worse I'd probably have just cancelled service with them.
1. Re:I ran into that by interval1066 · 2012-03-23 15:29 · Score: 2
  
  Buying a phone to access porn or other "adult" material, well, I suppose its not out of the realm of possibility, but seriously, a phone? Seems like there are much simpler ways for kids to access adult material if they are bent on it. And I'll also bet the "problem" is a lot less than these reactionaries are making it out to be.
  FOR EXAMPLE: when I was a kid my mother bought a paper back copy of William Blatty's Novel The Exorcist (yes, I'm that old) after the film version was released in '73 and made a huge splash in the film world, featuring Mike Oldfield's title peice Tubular Bells in the soundtrack. My mother caught me reading it and took it out of my hands asking me if I was looking for the part where Reagan is stabbing herself in the vagina with the crucifix. I really wasn't, it was the hugest film in the world at the time and I just wanted to see what the hell it was all about, but the point is; kids are going to find porn if that's what they're trying to do, and 2; where was T-Mobile (or Bell Teleohone, or Virgin Atlantic, or whomever) when I was 13? I mean seriously? Is this th kind of world we want to live in?
  Anyway, I think its more about T-Mobile trying to protect themselves from lawsuites over any regard for moral censorship anyway.
  
  --
  Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
2. Re:I ran into that by Americium · 2012-03-23 17:56 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Right, because normally I don't have to "log in" using a cellphone, they just bill random people for the minutes I use.
3. Re:I ran into that by X.25 · 2012-03-23 17:58 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  They copied that phony practice from Google: if you want to get uncensored results you have to "log in" which means give up your privacy/anonymity.
  I am not quite sure why you'd spew nonsense like that.
  Open private tab/window, to go Google, search for "blowjob", click "Images", set "SafeSearch" to "Off" - and you're done.
  No need to log in.
4. Re:I ran into that by toriver · 2012-03-23 19:40 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Not to mention those unwholesome foreign sports. Those rugby players have way too little padding.
Clbuttic? by jc42 · 2012-03-23 15:08 · Score: 4, Funny

... censorware tends to break in interesting ways, even when it's not by design.
In web development circles this is known as the "clbuttic mistake". ;-)
Google it.

--
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
1. Re:Clbuttic? by plover · 2012-03-23 16:30 · Score: 2
  
  ... censorware tends to break in interesting ways, even when it's not by design.
  In web development circles this is known as the "clbuttic mistake". ;-)
  Anybody else have fun when they discovered filters that would naively drop the naughty letters, but wasn't recursive? "You're full of shshitit!" would yield the desired epithet anyway.
  
  --
  John
2. Re:Clbuttic? by Hognoxious · 2012-03-23 20:09 · Score: 2
  
  Is it similar to the Svaginahorpe problem?
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Proxy sites by SSpade · 2012-03-23 15:08 · Score: 5, Insightful

The author seems amazed that a tool intended to make it difficult for kids to reach certain sorts of content blocks proxy sites. Either they have no clue about what they're talking about or they're prepared to ignore the gaping flaws in their own argument to make a point.
Thinking of the children. by matria · 2012-03-23 15:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

Elgin marbles, Sears catalog, National Geographic, your local art museum. How about the neighbor's bathroom window? What else can we keep the children from being traumatized by? Meanwhile people are beating, starving, raping and killing their own kids even as we sit and read this.
No "censor ads" option by Animats · 2012-03-23 16:03 · Score: 3, Insightful

Note that the censorship options do not include "advertising".
What Recourse Do We Have by ohnocitizen · 2012-03-23 16:07 · Score: 2

It seems that everyday something new comes out about poor service, censorship, or price gouging. No mobile company is excepted, which makes "I'll leave you for a company that treats its customers better" an ultimately empty threat. Is there space for competition here? Do we need to advocate public interest laws and industry regulation?
Think of the children by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-23 16:19 · Score: 4, Insightful

Except the list is so tangential and to be ridiculous censorship. e.g. Westmaster Junction, the discussion site for webmasters, Null Referer, a site that hides your referring page URL from websites you visit, Cosmopolitan magazine, a Russian programmers discussion forum etc, etc.
This is typically what happens when you have secret censorship, the list just grows and grows in ever more tangential ways and before you know it Slashdot is on the list because some commenter pointed out some flaw in some protocol used for some site used for filtering.
Re:Ignorant fools by plover · 2012-03-23 16:31 · Score: 2

The chat log at the bottom clearly shows they're just looking for mud to rake. The low-paid chat support guy isn't going to know that stuff to start with, and the ooni moron just keeps repeating himself as if it will make him look smarter.
Well, the T-Mobile guy was repeatedly hitting the button for "Canned Reply #17" and "Canned Reply #13" anyway. The whole thing reminded me of Eliza talking to Eliza.

--
John
Thank you for posting this. by scottbomb · 2012-03-23 16:40 · Score: 2

As a T-Mobile customer with 2 accounts (one of them pre-paid) I had no idea it was being censored. I despise ANY ISP censoring my web experience that I pay good money for. Even if I don't access these sites, I'm a grown man and I prefer to make my own decisions.
Unfortunately, the article seems to be lacking the obvious question: how to turn it off.
A quick Google search yielded some results:
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2144#How_do_I_enable_or_disable_Web_Guard_at_My_TMobile
Done.
T-Mobile's OPTIONAL Censorship by Anonymous Coward · 2012-03-23 18:10 · Score: 2, Insightful

If it's optional isn't it the end users (self)censorship? It is a service that T-mobile does not charge for, can easily be turned off, and is probably only there from a business standpoint to protect themselves from litigation. I honestly don't see the problem.