Internet filtering and blocking policies
Dear Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh,
I am writing as a research volunteer at the Open Rights Group. We are conducting a study to better understand filtering and blocking of websites on the public estate, to understand what content and sites are inaccessible and why.
We would like to know, in relation to your publicly accessible Internet networks, or Internet networks for your clients:
1. The categories of content blocked or filtered, e.g.:
(a) Security or Malware
(b) Content types, eg adult, alcohol etc
2. Statistics relating to the requests blocked or filtered, eg how many site requests filtered or blocked per category
3. Monitoring requirements you have for users, eg if you record or may record their Internet usage
Yours faithfully,
Charlie Parker
Researcher
Open Rights Group
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Queen Margaret University
Queen Margaret University Drive
Musselburgh
East Lothian EH21 6UU
[1][email address]
Good morning,
Apologies for the delay. Please find the information below:
QMU operates a publically accessibly wireless service for guests.
1) On the guest wireless network (to reflect the open membership of
the network, as well as its limited bandwidth) we currently block
“abortion”, “abused drugs”, “adult”, “command-and-control”, “dating”.
“dynamic-dns”, “gambling”, “hacking”, “malware”, “nudity”, “parked”,
“peer-to-peer”, “phishing”, “proxy-avoidance-and-anonymizers”,
“questionable”, “shareware-and-freeware”, and “weapons”.
2) We do not currently collect statistics per category, or keep long
term statistics. However, approximately 35000 URLs across all the
categories above were blocked on the guest wireless in the last week.
3) We have systems in place which can monitor user’s network activity
(for example to perform the blocking mentioned in the answers above). But
we do not specifically monitor the users by name. Also, since the network
is publically accessible we can only identify the users if they identify
themselves openly to us upon registration.
If you have any queries or concerns please contact:
FOI
Queen Margaret University
Queen Margaret University Drive
Musselburgh
East Lothian EH21 6UU
[1][email address]
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Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh EH21 6UU
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