So: when @EE enable Porn on your PAYG Wireless Broadband, you won't *believe* the Terms & Conditions: pic.twitter.com/mpxiiKZBL9
— Alec Muffett (@AlecMuffett) May 16, 2014
So as an Adult it appears you are contractually obliged to be filtered if anyone under the age of 18 is going to “use” the SIM.
And yet EE still don’t tell you exactly what else it is that you’ll be blocked from seeing as their block lists aren’t public.
BuzzFeed has reported that the Government is so intent on continuing to block online material, that it is willing to block the EU Internet Neutrality laws;
We wouldn’t support anything that restricted our ability to block illegal material.
We do not support any proposals that mean we cannot enforce our laws, including blocking child abuse images.Government spokesperson
Note that is no longer just about protecting children, it’s safe to say we’ll start to see the blocking of “extreme” material soon enough…
As part of the plan to filter the Internet the big ISPs also agreed to fund an awareness campaign to educate parents (the cynical among us believe this to be a PR ploy to gloss over the surveillance impact of DPI, filtering & the expansion of CleanFeed esque silent censorship).
The InternetMatters website itself ( http://www.internetmatters.org/ ) contains a lot of actually useful advice and doesn’t resort to scare tactics for sensitive subjects like Grooming or Bullying to encourage the use of filters.
Furthermore the website even tells visitors that No Filter is 100% effective;
This leads onto a point highlighted in a recent tweet for the campaigns twitter account;
Whose responsibility is it to keep your children safe online? http://t.co/RkBOPlOK8P #internetmatters pic.twitter.com/hoWoajm6da
— Internet Matters (@IM_org) May 14, 2014
96% of parents believe it is their responsibility to keep their children safe (so not the ISPs) and no filter is ever 100% effective.
So why did David Cameron and Claire Perry insists that ISPs start filtering the Internet?
Why has TalkTalk deployed surveillance grade Deep Packet Inspection equipment on their network? Why does Sky and others interfere with in-transit packets to spoof responses to legitimate requests?
One answer is that this equipment makes it easier for the Police & GCHQ to intercept traffic. It also enables rights holders to arbitrarily choose where your packets can go by blocking ThePirateBay.org and others like it.
It is still possible to anonymously purchase on-line resources which will be useful for those wishing to frustrate Internet surveillance, evade Internet censorship or blow the whistle on something without risking the exposure of their identity.
Finding a pre-paid card that can be purchased in cash with no questions asked is trivially easy, any card or gift shop is likely to have them interspersed with Starbucks gift cards etc.
For this example we’ll choose a £50 VISA card which once you get to the till will actually cost £53.95. Hand over your cash and walk out of the door.
As you leave swing by a Three, EE, O2 or Vodafone store and buy a pre-pay data SIM. Three have a 1Gb SIM for £7.50, buy it with cash and walk out of the store.
By now the VISA card will have activated and should be good to go.
For extra anonymity you may wish to visit a local pawn broker like Cash Converters or CEX and acquire a phone, tablet or laptop so that the IMEI you use with the newly purchased SIM is not one that has previously been tied to your identity.
Open up your VISA card and you’ll notice it has an expiry date, the CVV code on the signature strip and the usual 16 digit credit card number.
Setup your 3G connection, optionally install TOR to bypass any ISP restrictions that may be present then navigate to your VPS provider of choice. I’d suggest DigitalOcean.com but there are many others.
Signing up for an account is easy, put in an email address and a password (the email address will have to be a real one as it needs to be verified and it’s where your root passwords are sent but try signing up to something like HushMail.com).
Once logged in you’ll be asked to verify your billing details;
Now it’s likely that your use of TOR and a prepaid VISA card will trigger anti-fraud protections; the account will be locked and a support ticket will be raised asking you to identify yourself
The people at DigitalOcean are very good and if you adequately explain your motivations (be it running a website you’d rather not have your name attached too, as a proxy for privacy etc) they are likely to accommodate you without requiring copies of ID or a credit card number tied to your identity. DO NOT ABUSE THEIR TRUST.
Within a few minutes the account will be unlocked and you can launch your virtual machine.
If you login to the VISA pre-pay system you’ll be able to see if the pre-authorisation passed and that you’ll be able to continue paying for your server resources.
You can now host your whistle-blowing blog, a critique of public policy or just use it as a proxy safe in the knowledge that there is virtually no trace back to your true identity.
As mentioned on our Top Ways to Avoid Filters page the Onion Router Project (better known as TOR) excels at bypassing censorship technologies such as the Sky Broadband Shield, the TalkTalk filters, BT Parental Controls and even the Great Firewall of Cameron China whilst at the same time offering almost perfect anonymity.
TOR is an excellent choice for any would-be whistle blower, political journalist, privacy advocate, vulnerable adult or any other person who wants/needs unrestricted Internet access.
TOR is no more a tool for criminals than a kitchen knife or a car, much like encryption the more it is used by normal people for normal day-to-day tasks the better the protection for everyone by making it more expensive for nation states to perform blanket surveillance and Internet filtering.
This post will show you how to download and install the TOR client (which is easy) whilst also ensuring it’s the real deal and hasn’t been interfered with by your ISP or other malicious actors.
The best place to download TOR is from the projects own website here: https://www.torproject.org/download/download-easy.html.en (note the https). You should also do whatever is necessary to acquire the signature file which can be found by following the link labelled sig (underlined in red below) on the download page.
The download is also available on this website by clicking here and the signature for this download is reproduced below.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1 iQEcBAABCAAGBQJTaXIZAAoJEEFvBhBj/uZZEJsIAKD2Ny/oXZheHd3xkgk9t906 a3Xayel0Mxp7Yj6dEvoDKTvvkyvmN1PC4K7oFjovaFP29SekDSRvMYnRlLnDaEHD QZoPs7bFpf1qoRukZgMr9Q9B4rsy4Q9hr8iNcV1OeVawiGf8aQ/9XIp3TDErb80w 0tKnK4JI0a8FDKumc5GFTNQNZo9G2r46puSu4hLkckbz8zZa4FqVIjOpiyG65ri4 VdujXmpObLYEL/lAfg6xoCIF8VzM9eb1jBj+ISCxt0r2bpD8/iBizEvNRjzWIQUe krqEuPpzYNiGLzXvczMTULs4lo7s6jGDR44ztijnwm87JdJCtFIrrh/+8QKe82Q= =h2XC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
At this point you could just install TOR and trust that everything is OK but in this day and age you should really make sure.
At this point you should go off and read about GnuPG on Wikipedia and consider reading the GnuPG manual so you fully understand why we’re about to do what we are going to do.
As we’re on Windows (you should consider trying Linux even if it’s only on a live boot CD/USB) we need to install GPG4WIN which can be downloaded here: http://gpg4win.org/download.html. Pay close attention to the SHA1 checksum you will need that shortly.
Secondarily download and install the Microsoft File Checksum Integrity Verifier from, here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=11533
Luckily the Microsoft download will be signed and certified by a certificate already embedded in the OS so go ahead and install it, you should see that the publisher is “Microsoft Corporation” and if you click the blue text you should see a confirmation that the Digital Signature is OK;
Once extracted to a useful location (preferably the same place you downloaded the GPG4WIN installer to) execute the following command;
fciv.exe -sha1 gpg4win-2.2.1.exe
This will generate the SHA1 hash you noted earlier in a manner similar to that below, if the two hashes do not match exactly then something is wrong.
// // File Checksum Integrity Verifier version 2.05. // 6fe64e06950561f2183caace409f42be0a45abdf gpg4win-2.2.1.exe
Now (assuming that the hashes match) we need to install GPG4Win, for added security you can ensure that the certificate is also genuine for the installer by clicking More Details then Show information about this publishers certificate. The default GPG4Win installs options should suffice;
Once installed load up the GNU Privacy Assistant or GPA from the All Programs > Gpg4Win section of the start menu. GPA allows you to import the public keys of the TOR developers who signed the TOR installer to guarantee that it is genuine and hasn’t been tampered with.
All the signing keys can be found on this page; https://www.torproject.org/docs/signing-keys.html.en if you are unable to reach that page then the key we want is from a developer named Erinn Clark whose key can be identified as 0x63FEE659.
To install her key select Server then Retrieve Keys from the GPA menu
In the popup box that appears type or paste 0x63FEE659 then click OK.
You should then be told that one 1 public key has been read and imported!
Select Erinn’s key from the list and look at the details, ensure that the fingerprint matches the one on https://www.torproject.org/docs/signing-keys.html.en or if you can’t reach that page this;
8738 A680 B84B 3031 A630 F2DB 416F 0610 63FE E659
If it does right click on her key and select Sign Key, this indicates that you trust this key for encryption and importantly for our purposes any signatures made.
You’re now ready to confirm if the TOR download is safe to install. Navigate to the location where you saved the TOR executable and the signature file, right click on the installer and navigate to More GpgEx Options then click Verify.
In the window that pops up click Decrypt / Verify, if all has been succesful you will see a green notice confirming that the signature passes.
You can now install TOR safe in the knowledge that the download has not been tampered with by malicious criminals or the surveillance state. Once installed you will now be able to evade any form of Government or ISP filtering.
Remember if you are using TOR to protect yourself as part of a whistle blowing exercise there are several warnings to take heed of to ensure that you do not jeopardise the work you’ve put in so far.
Claire Perry tweeted today that she believes that laws about smoking with a Child in the car are unenforceable and “bad”.
By extension it follows that Ms Perry believes that laws about driving whilst drunk, driving whilst high, driving without a seatbelt and driving whilst using a mobile phone without hands free are also unenforceable “bad” laws.
This is the MP who thinks that the Internet can be filtered…
I'm undecided about today's vote on smoking ban cars w/child passengers. Heart says "ban it", head says "unenforceable bad law". Thoughts?
— Claire Perry (@claire4devizes) February 10, 2014
Two days after internet porn-blocking campaigner MP Claire Perry announced ISP filters were not overblocking content, the government has announced it is.
On top of that Ms Perry consistently berates her constituents and steadfastly sticks to the story that filters aren’t overblocking;
@weborguk do grow up. Or perhaps get on with some work like the rest of us are trying to do!
— Claire Perry (@claire4devizes) February 5, 2014
@mrowebot @graphiclunarkid afraid that's total rubbish too. Filters are current device level (or better) lifted to home network.
— Claire Perry (@claire4devizes) February 5, 2014
@graphiclunarkid This is a classic example of the total rubbish talked about giving families more help to manage internet access.
— Claire Perry (@claire4devizes) February 5, 2014
The ISPs tried pacifying opponents of UK Web Filtering by telling them they had to do it or David Cameron would legislate it anyway.
They backed down and co-operated. Only a few weeks after a Lord suggested it be mandatory an amendment has already been proposed to the Children and Families Bill;
Duty to provide an internet service that protects children
(1) Internet service providers must provide to subscribers an internet access service which excludes adult content unless all the conditions of subsection (3) have been fulfilled.
(2) Where mobile telephone operators provide a telephone service to subscribers which includes an internet access service, they must ensure this service excludes adult content unless all the conditions of subsection (3) have been fulfilled.
(3) The conditions are–
(a) the subscriber “opts-in” to subscribe to a service that includes adult content;
(b) the subscriber is aged 18 or over; and
(c) the provider of the service has an age verification policy which meets the standards set out by OFCOM in subsection (4) and which has been used to confirm that the subscriber is aged 18 or over before a user is able to access adult content.(4) It shall be the duty of OFCOM to set, and from time to time to review and revise, standards for the–
(a) filtering of adult content in line with the standards set out in section 319 of the Communications Act 2003; and
(b) age verification policies to be used under subsection (3) before a user is able to access adult content.(5) The standards set out by OFCOM under subsection (4) must be contained in one or more codes.
(6) It shall be the duty of OFCOM to establish procedures for the handling and resolution of complaints in a timely manner about the observance of standards set under subsection (4).
(7) In this section, internet service providers and mobile telephone operators shall at all times be held harmless of any claims or proceedings, whether civil or criminal, providing that at the relevant time, the internet access provider or the mobile telephone operator–
(a) was following the standards and code set out by OFCOM in subsection (4); and
(b) acting in good faith.(8) In this section–
“adult content” means material which might seriously impair the physical, mental or moral development of persons under the age of eighteen;
“opts-in” means a subscriber notifies the service provider of his or her consent to subscribe to a service that includes adult content.”
BARONESS HOWE OF IDLICOTE
You can read the full list of amendments here.
ThinkBroadband (amongst others) has reported that Sky has yet again overblocked a website.
This time it was code.jquery.com which a lot of other websites rely on to serve the well know Javascript frameworks core files from.
Things like this are bound to happen, were predicted to happen and will continue to happen, causing untold damage to businesses and people.
JQuery was temporary blocked this morning having been misclassified. Our review process kicked in shortly afterwards and the site was unblocked just over an hour later.Sky
A year ago today The Spectator ran an article in which Claire Perry said, in reference to online filters, that
I’m in no way the Mary Whitehouse of thisClaire Perry
Well a year later and people are not only referring to her as that but putting her in the same category as the Stasi and book burners;
@PornPanic wonder if @claire4devizes realises history will categorise her along with the like of book burners, the Stasi and Mary Whitehouse
— Megalomaniac (@dr_megalomaniac) December 19, 2013
At one point the plan was for a filter that checks the age of the child browsing, rather than her original call for all users to opt-in to accessing adult content on their computer, which a government consultation rejected. Somehow, 12 months later, we have exactly that.
Despite criticism from the ISPs, celebrity advisors and the Internet at large Claire Perry is proud that the government is pushing ahead with these plans.
Regardless of what people tweet, history will look back at sources such as the BBC and Wikipedia where her name sits side by side with the words Internet Censorship.
Claire Perry, you’ve made the world slightly worse.