When an STC subscriber logs onto their DSL or signs in to the reseller-provided dial-up internet accounts, the trail begins. All requests are invisibly handled by a proxy server on the ISP’s side – nothing intellectually challenging or exceptionally technologically advanced there. It passes through your generic proxy no-cache server that simply filters the URI request through a domain blacklist. If the URI is on it, you are redirected to a no-frills page informing you that access to the URI in question has been denied, and offers you a link to a “please allow this URI form” that no one ever follows up on. Simple.
But that was just a warm-up. If Saudi Arabia wants complete information control, and it isn’t asking Google for its help, you can bet there is something more sinister going on than that; and indeed there is. Not only are the requested URIs filtered, but so are the data packets traded back and forth. For instance, you can browse Google at your leisure, cookies flying this way and that, with Google tracking you every step of the way like they always do… But when you are sent a bit of data you shouldn’t have, it goes missing somewhere along the way.
An example is if you attempt to disable Safe Search, Google’s homebrew content-control system that blocks some inappropriate content in its web searches. If you want to turn it off, you just tell it, and it ’marks’ your computer as an exception by storing a cookie on it… But here’s where it gets creepy: Saudi Arabias’ complex two-way proxy servers will intercept that cookie. They know exactly how it looks, and what it does. And they manage to lose it. Google sends you on your way, but you don’t have that valuable cookie, and Safe Search is still on. Same on Yahoo! and same on MSN — it’s not going to happen.
According to the data we have, Saudi Arabia isn’t filtering keywords; an approach filled with false positives and easily avoidable by using images or alternate spellings instead. Rather, it seems they have a bunch of guys in dorky glasses at the Ministry of Telex scouring the web for ’tainted’ sites and blacklisting them as they come along. They probably do have keyword-based content flags that go off when you hit a keyword and triage the results, and they probably have a lot of these ’content controllers’ at work too.
Just how far their Firewall goes isn’t exactly clear, they don’t exactly have a “Freedom of Information Act” that someone could call on (though it seems to be null in void even in the USA at the moment), and even if they did, who’s to say the information is the real deal? It doesn’t really matter, it’s the principle that counts, but try this on for size:
Nice read, glad to see your still with us.
Thanks Kris, I’m personally still on the road, but I have some shreds of internet access to hold on to 🙂
The same thing happens EXACTLY in Iran. some regims just can’t understand freedom. And I hope all of them fade away soon.
People are free to leave the country.
I personally ENCOURAGE censhorship when it comes to pornographic material (which is what is mostly censored in the middle east)
In Egypt, The system is totally opposite.Pornography is totally uncensored ,while political sites are censored(including bulletins that talk about politics in the way that the gov. doesn’t like).
There isn’t much you can do… When the country you live and die in is blocking access to the sites and close proxies and loopholes even as they are found/created, there’s pretty much absoloutely nothing you can do about it.
China firewall is lame ? use Freedur.com to bypass it. You can bypass China Great Firewall and access youtube.com and all other sites which are blocked.
Oh! It’s weird alright in Saudi. I remember I would surf the US Cosmopolitan site regularly, and within 2-3 weeks half the articles in it were blocked. I still had access to the site but all other content was blocked. Weird… They not only block sites but even pages. So a lifestyle magazine will have all pages with “inappropriate content” blocked. One thing I’ve noticed is that the more you block content, the more weird people become. Saudi men are actually quite the playboys and the addiction to pornography is extreme here. It’s weird. And sometimes if you have a CD with you at the airport, they check it! They actually play the CD and fine you if the content is “inappropriate”… Even the online Saudi community groups which haven’t been blocked or now are, are filled with pornographic groups which just shows their obsession with it. lol… I reckon one needs freedom to avoid becoming a pervert. Maybe extreme content can be blocked, but they’ve even blocked science sites related to human reproduction and sex organs… =S
So you dont like it right? Get outta my country. Nobody is forcing you.
” If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. ”
” Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. ”
George Orwell
Fascinating story. Never heard of this previously. Makes sense though, a country so far behind in many areas, such as woman’s rights. Why not just add sensorship to their bag.
I approve the firewall ,to an extent.
Blocking a whole a domain based on a page is just sick,it’s like blaming a whole country based on one citizen action.(America did that too ,btw)
Torrents sites are now blocked,it’s not about porn it’s about making people hear only what they are meant to hear.
If there is one thing I know ,that would be “knowledge is power” and taking that right from us is crossing the red line.
But who cares ,we’re like cattle (ARABS as a whole),we’re on the bottom of the prymiad not wanting to fight the top and reach it.
This is enslavement people ,mass enslavement.
That was a good read, written 5 years ago by someone not arabic.:)
Questions for NS:
1.How did you obtain this information “All requests are invisibly handled by a proxy server on the ISP?s side?
2.If all DSL and dial-up connections are based on one ISP,how about satellite-broadband and ISP wireless connections?
Please reply ASAP,thanks!!!