Singaporean NII - a "superhighway" of morality checkpoints? -- I call your

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

From: lim () solomon technet sg (Lim Hock Koon)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore,alt.wired
Subject: Re: How to snoop on individuals (was Re: Wired banned in Singapore)
Date: 7 Jul 1994 16:16:48 GMT
Organization: TECHNET, Singapore
Distribution: world


In article <m5.773452912@vail> m5 () tivoli com writes:
> I think a basic point is being skipped over in this entire discussion.
>
> It is indeed one thing to suspect that the government of Singapore will
> tap the internet and monitor the communications of every citizen that
> uses it.


 The following is a posting from a local news group.  I suppose it is
a first step of Internet information control in Singapore. They are
checking about some picture file this time.  But what is next?




Hock-Koon Lim                           Internet: lim () ctron com
Cabletron System                        Tel: (65)775-5355
85 Science Park Dr, #03-03/04
The Cavendish, Singapore 0511           FAX: (65)776-3382


==== Technet announcement ======




Article 214 of sg.technet.talk:
Path: raffles.technet.sg!solomon.technet.sg!tinwee
From: tinwee () solomon technet sg (Tan Tin Wee)
Newsgroups: sg.technet.talk
Subject: Electronic Pornography
Date: 7 Jul 1994 15:17:32 GMT
Organization: Technet, Singapore
Lines: 101
Message-ID: <2vh6ac$oci () raffles technet sg>
NNTP-Posting-Host: solomon.technet.sg
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL0]


TECHNET USERS:  please read this circular carefully and calmly
--------------------------------------------------


7 July 1994


Technet Circular on


ELECTRONIC PORNOGRAPHY
----------------------


Please be reminded that our Acceptable Usage Policy does not allow
subscribers of Technet to engage in activities relating to the above.


Until such time as the relevant authorities provide definitive
guidelines as to what constitutes pornography, we will take the
commonsense criteria.


In an effort to monitor how widespread this phenomenon is,
Technet reserves the right to investigate complaints arising from
such activities in order to conform to the laws of the land.


We have had opportunity this afternoon to carry out a spotcheck on
all solomon /tmp, /tmp2, /var/tmp, /home and /home1 directories.
This arose from a request made by a high-ranking authority to Technet Unit
to investigate this phenomenon.  As this was a spotcheck, staff of Technet
Unit reserve the right not to announce this beforehand.


In an attempt to regulate this spotchecking activity so that misuse
and abuse of superuser rights do not ever take place, and to ensure that
such spotchecking activity does not constitute arbitray invasion of
privacy, the spotcheck was carried out in the presence of several
senior Technet staff.  Owing the urgent nature of the above-mentioned
request, we were unable to engage an independent party to witness
and ensure that proper spotchecking procedures (which may include
double-blind procedures to protect the privacy of users) were strictly adhered
to. For this we apologise to all users who may consider this a temporary breach
of privacy.  In future, we will endeavour to have an independent
party to be present at all manual spotchecking sessions which may or may
not be announced in advance.


Although the primary objective of spotchecking is to monitor and
detect pornographic activity and to prevent or curtail or minimise
such illegal activity, we will not hesitate to refer recalcitrant
pornographers and report repeated or large scale pornographic activity
to the relevant authorities.


All decent Technet users of blameless personal integrity should
be happy to note that of the 80,000 or so files we screened,
we were only able to detect 5 picture files containing
pornographic material using the commonsense definition.
The method of detection was primitive but we assure Technet subscribers
that we will do our best to improve the efficiency of our detection
procedure.


In future, we hope to semi-automate the process and invite the relevant
authorities who specialise in assessing pornographic material to carry out
the judgement as Technet's upright staff do not wish to be unduly affected
personally by too frequent spotchecks.


Hopefully spotchecks of private directories will not need to be frequent, as
we at Technet do not wish to play the role of "Big Brother",
but spotchecks of files in the temporary or public domain will be as frequent
as is necessary to ensure that public avenues of our electronic superhighways
remain clean and free from socially unacceptable material, and that the
laws of the land are upheld and enforced in the electronic realm.


To allay your fears, no action will be taken against the Technet
subscribers whose Technet accounts have been found to contain pornographic
material.  Because an independent observer was not present, your names
have been destroyed, but you will probably know who you are if you are still
capable of understanding the commonsense definition of pornography without
having your consciences seared beyond redemption.


Nevertheless, it is our advice that all Technet subscribers
remove all such material from Technet's computer immediately, that
Technet subscribers used to such activity implement procedures wean
themselves from such counter-social activity as soon as possible, and that
all Technet subscribers succumbing to temptation consider the potential
consequences if caught with such material during our randomised automated
spotchecking and automatic referral procedure.
*****
We would also like to apologise to concerned individuals that we
are unable to carry out such checks on our large and medium users as their
computer hosts are outside our jurisdiction.  However, it is futile at this
stage to speculate if there may eventually be government requirement in
the coming years to study the feasibility of spotchecking packets as a
method of detecting potential pornographers.
*****
As such procedures of spotchecking may be novel in the Internet realm,
we invite concerned parties to voice their opinion and suggestions
so that Technet can evolve a sane and wise policy with respect to this
kind of phenomenon.


Thank you for your attention and we thank you for your cooperation
and forbearance as we carry out our duty to preserve and protect
Singapore's information superhighway.


Tan Tin Wee
Head
Technet Unit







--
Hock-Koon Lim                           Internet: lim () ctron com
Cabletron System                        Tel: (65)775-5355
85 Science Park Dr, #03-03/04
The Cavendish, Singapore 0511           FAX: (65)776-3382







--
Stanton McCandlish * mech () eff org * Electronic Frontier Found. OnlineActivist
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