SmartFilter stupidity - health sites as SEX

Anticensorware material by Seth Finkelstein - SmartFilter damage

The Kaiser Family Foundation just released a study concerning censorware and health sites. In honor of this study, I give some different health-related websites likely to be banned in some libraries and schools as pornography, as these sites are all blacklisted as "Sex". This is offered here as a simple, right-now, hot-off-the-presses, see-for-yourself, demonstration of what can be banned by censorware as porn.

The following examples are from SmartFilter , a censorware program made by Secure Computing. This program is used just because I had some work available from prior investigations. But the issues are general to all censorware, not any particular program.

Some health-related sites banned as "Sex" by SmartFilter, December 11 2002:
[My comments, as to potential reasons, in brackets, emphasis mine]

http://www.acdaoralhealth.org/
"Alliance of the American Dental Association" - "Foundation for Dental Health"
[Uh-Oh - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TO: "Oral Health America"]

http://www.activehealthcare.com/
"ActiveHealthcare.com is your source for dependable Medical Supplies and Equipment and quality Home Health Care Information."
[" ... Handicap scooter, Medela breast pumps, Electric breast pump, Breast pumps, Support stockings," - guess which keyword was the problem?]

http://www.eyeshealth.com/
"Our Aim is to actively promote eye care knowledge to the public, encourage healthy eyes and prevent blindness"
[A site with both foreign and English versions - maybe the foreign language triggers the censorware somehow]

http://www.healthcare-nrw.org/
"Health Care NRW, a federal state initiative, brings together North Rhine-Westphalia's pharmaceutical companies, research facilities, scientists and academics, service providers"
[I have no idea what was the problem here]

http://www.pwhealth.com/
"Professionals for Women's Health"
[Let's see - keywords " ... Professionals for Women's Health, women's health, women, ...". Probably to many "women" too close together]

http://www.womenshealthnp.org/
"Women's Health Care Nurse Practitioner Program"
[Hmm, "Adult/Family NP" - "The Adult Primary Care Nurse Practitioner" ... maybe too much "adult" content]

Verification screen shot 1
Verification screen shot 2

[Note - this material is not associated with or endorsed by, the Kaiser Family Foundation study See No Evil: How Internet Filters Affect the Search for Online Health Information . Merely inspired by it. ]

Update: They were finally all changed from "Sex" around January 7, 2003


Older material:
SmartFilter - I've Got A Little List
SmartFilter's Greatest Evils

Mail comments to: Seth Finkelstein <sethf@sethf.com>

For future information:   subscribe    to   Seth Finkelstein's Infothought list    or read the    Infothought blog

(if you subscribed a few months ago, please resubscribe due to a crash)

See more of Seth Finkelstein 's Censorware Investigations