The current Network World, to which I don't subscribe, but which arrives in my mailbox at work anyway, features an unintentionally disturbing article on Websense, a company that categorizes websites for clients who wish to restrict or monitor employee web-surfing. The article is a bit hazy on the details, but Websense seems to put a priority on identifying sites that deal with subjects on their "obscenities" list (once known as the "Sinful Six"): "adult content, weapons, race/hatred, illegal drugs, violence and tasteless." That's a pretty broad interpretation of "obscenity" already, but they don't stop there. Second priority is a "premium" list: "instant messaging, online day trading, paid to surf, streaming media, [and] spyware." In all, they have some 80 categories -- including "advocacy groups, education, and news/media." Oh yes, heaven forbid an employee try to stay current on world events or explore educational opportunities on company time!

Details about how clients use Websense's 5-million-site database are largely absent, but the final paragraph provides a hint:

But Websense wants people to know that it is merely the messenger when it comes to its customers' Web access rules. Tim Lan, a database services representative has to sift through piles of, at times abusive, e-mails from people who tried to access a juicy site but instead were met with an all-white access-denied box, complete with Websense's logo. "We tell them it's their company's policy that they can't access that site, and that they should see their network admins," he says.

It's disingenuous to say that Websense is "just a messenger" here. It is Websense that slaps a label like "porn" on a site. Presumably the client network administrator just automatically blocks (or, more insidiously, flags for investigation) all requests to sites that have been so labeled. So there is good reason to question what Websense's criteria are. Again, the details are sketchy. The "analysts" they employ to make the determinations are, according to the article, mostly part-time overseas college students from nearby UCSD, whose main qualifications seem to be language skills.

"My friends think it's funny I get paid to look at porn sites," says Alex Hirsch, who has been working as an analyst for six months. "I like my job because I get to use my languages - German, French and Italian," she says.

So if I get this straight, if my university were to subscribe to Websense to monitor/filter web usage on campus, I could get blocked from viewing (and maybe reprimanded or fired for viewing?) a link to Fleshbot because some minimum-wage (I don't actually know what they pay, but I'm sure they're not getting health insurance and a pension plan) Mrs./Mr. Grundy working graveyard at Websense (they stay open 24 hours to give employees "flexibility") for beer money decided it is pornography or simply tasteless? I find that downright creepy.