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Delta says it plans to block websites it deems “inappropriate” when it rolls out its new Wi-Fi service.  The service will be available on selected planes later this year and on all of its flights in 2009.  The airline’s original plan was to let flight attendants handle any issues, but they changed their mind and will now be using a software solution.  Like American Airlines, they will also block VOIP service to avoid customer complaints of passengers making loud phone calls.

The Wi-Fi service will be provided by Aircell’s GoGo service, and they said they have no problem filtering content if requested.  Privacy experts, not surprisingly are critical of the idea, fearing it could open the floodgates for outright censorship.

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Sections: Communications, Mobile, Computers, Wireless, Web, Websites

Researchers in Canada have discovered that Skype’s Chinese venture with Tom Online, called Tom-Skype, is filtering text chats and monitoring them.  Chats are routinely scanned for politically censored keywords.  If any are found, those chats and personal information are stored on insecure and publiclly accessible servers.  They are encrypted, but the key needed to decrypt them is stored right alongside them!

Their report, called “Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China’s Tom-Skype platform,“ stops short of implicating the Chinese government, but does suggest that Tom-Skype is cooperating with them.  The filter appears to scan for usernames and certain keywords relating to Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and any political opposition of the government.

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Chinese Internet users from Beijing and Shanghai are reporting that they can now access the English-language version of Wikipedia after it was blocked by the Chinese authorities a couple of months ago. However, the Chinese version and other sites which have politically sensitive topics such as Tibet and Tiananmen Square remained restricted at this time.

The decision to remove the restriction followed after an inspector from the International Olympic Committee (OIC) told the Beijing Olympic organizers that the Chinese government should remove the restriction even just for the duration of the 2008 Olympics. According to the inspector, continually blocking the access to Wikipedia might reflect a bad impression about the host country.

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Sections: Tech News, Web, Websites

Is GoDaddy playing censorship God again or did the police ranking site RateMyCop actually really hit its bandwidth limit? RateMyCop has been gaining popularity lately because it allows visitors to post comments and ratings on police officers. It would have been alright if the site was not disclosing officer names and badge numbers, but unfortunately it does.

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Sections: Web, Web Apps, Websites