General Discussion Discuss New tool aims to bypass Internet censorship in the General Forums forums; Ingenuity will always prevail over those that would keep others from the knowledge that empowers them. A new tool aimed at circumventing Internet filters used by some governments was released ...

[Code Monkey]

Ingenuity will always prevail over those that would keep others from the knowledge that empowers them.

A new tool aimed at circumventing Internet filters used by some governments was released Friday, offering hopes for freer access to information for activists, journalists and others.

The "psiphon" software, developed at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, offers more potential for bypassing government censors than most other tools because it allows simple access and leaves no traces on the computers of people who use it, developers say.

Psiphon, released through the Open Net Initiative, a project of four universities in the United States, Canada and Britain, "operates on private social networks of trust," said Ronald Deibert, director of Citizen Lab.

Deibert said psiphon functions like a "virtual private network" used by many companies and organizations to securely transmit data, but without the cumbersome installation of VPNs.

"We've designed it to be very easy to use," Deibert said, noting that other software aimed at maintaining anonymity on the Internet can be complex to use.

"The user does not have to install anything. They connect to the software with a unique user name and password and website address."

Because the system relies on a connection through a proxy computer outside the country, "there is nothing authorities can block," Deibert said.

With psiphon, a user in a country such as China, which limits the information that can be seen on the Internet, connects to a proxy in another country that allows them to bypass restrictions.

Even if authorities located someone using the bypass tool, they would only be able to shut down a single "node" or contact and this would not affect others.

You can read more here.

[G_Man]

WOW!!!

I think that is great. Anything that hinders censcorship is a step towards freedom and roadblock to oppressive governments.

[Yvgeniy]

That's nice and all... but it may come down to us losing Net Neutrality Act in which case this won't make any difference. I really hope it doesn't happen, and it doesn't look like it will, but I recall seeing a commercial on TV once that talked about how bad Net Neutrality was and how this costs extra in tax money. Hell, people believe a lot of stuff, you know what I mean?