News, Telecommunications - Wednesday, October 26, 2011 10:12 - 10 Comments

ISPs don’t have to collect voluntary filter data

news The Australian Federal Police has confirmed there is no obligation by Internet service providers participating in its voluntary Internet filtering trial to collect data about how many requests to visit the sites they block under the trial — or to disclose that data if it is actually collected.

The voluntary filtering initiative is a stop-gap measure agreed to by ISPs and the Federal Government in mid-2010 while a review is carried out into the Refused Classification category of content which Government’s wider mandatory filter project is slated to block. It has initially been implemented by Telstra, Optus, and a smaller ISP known as CyberOne and blocks a list of ‘worst of the worst’ of child pornography sites as supplied by international policing agency Interpol.

Customers who visit one of the sites on Interpol’s list are greeted by al ‘stop page’ which will explain that the content they have attempted to access is illegal, along with instructions as to how they can challenge Interpol’s ruling. Those who believe their web site has been inadvertently blocked by Interpol are able to ask for a review via the agency’s own website, or will be able to contact the AFP.

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