SafeBrowse.com
SafeBrowse.com is a censorware program that's mentioned prominently in the just-published Consumer Reports "Filtering software: Better, but still fallible" article. It turns out this product is merely a repackaging of the well-known censorware N2H2:
We are proud to be using the industry's most reliable filtering software, N2H2. N2H2 employs a full-time staff to compile its extensive categorized database of Web content. While others rely solely on technology to detect and harvest Web content, N2H2's proprietary process uses a unique combination of technology and human review.
That part about "unique combination" is total nonsense (but who is listening to what I say?)
And how interesting, it turns out SafeBrowse.com is "a Christian owned and operated company":
As a Christian owned and operated company, these three founders have a common goal of making SafeBrowse.com the leading provider of filtered Internet services to the world!
There's definitely interesting connections here, per another press release:
With this agreement, Safe Eyes will become an integral part of the Setting Captives Free program. All students of their Way of Purity course will be encouraged to install and use Safe Eyes as part of the pornography addiction recovery process. Safe Eyes will also receive exclusive placement on the Setting Captives Free website and at all conferences and workshops.
When asked about this new partnership Shane Kenny, President of SafeBrowse.com, Inc. said, "I am very excited about this new partnership with Setting Captives Free. The combination of the best pornography recovery resource with the best in Internet filtering and monitoring is a win-win situation for everyone involved. It is a pleasure to work with the people over at Settings Captives Free and to know that Safe Eyes is being used to help those that need it and want it so badly."
...
Setting Captives Free is a non-profit ministry that exists to help those that are held captive by an addiction. Started by Mike Cleveland and his wife in 1999, this ministry has quickly grown to cover the entire United States and several foreign countries. ...
Now, before people jump all over me, let me note I don't know the exact extent of the links here. But I think there's a problematic implication in secret blacklists that are heavily connected with religious censors, if only from a very understandable market-based skewing toward those sensibilities. And given the Federal law regarding censorware and public libraries, this is indeed a matter of public concern.
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in censorware | on May 13, 2005 02:47 PM (Infothought permalink)
And there's also
http://www.afafilter.com/
Yes - that's X-Stop. There's plenty. I'm concerned because of the Consumer Reports implied endorsement here.