Excerpts from linuxchix: 17-Jan-101 Re: [issues] Re: Filtering .. by Jen
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Yes, I believe you have made incorrect statements about N2H2 and are
> misunderstanding N2H2's philosophy altogether. The company's web page
> describes in detail how the product works and why.
Not that I found. I only saw vague phrases like "robust artificial
intelligence"[2] and "Technology That Really Works"[1].
There's no description about how the "technology" works. That's
understandable, since if it was described in detail, either it would
be shown to not work (and nobody would buy the product), or it would
be shown to work (and the algorithm could be stolen). I found no
studies showing its effectiveness (please post them if you know of
any?). One could conclude that there aren't any. It doesn't matter,
anyway. The people who usually make decisions about buying filter
software (just as the people who make decisions about buying anything)
are more impressed by phrases like "leading brand" and "education's
largest".
> It is my opinion that
> the technology used by N2H2 and other leading filtering companies is
> misunderstood by the community in general, and I strongly urge everyone
> who is against internet filtering to research the facts about the
> technology, instead of making false assumptions.
There are no facts about the technology. No filtering software
company publishes its source code or even high level descriptions of
algorithms for how it decides to block sites.
[1] http://www.n2h2.com/solutions/school/school_products.html
[2] http://www.n2h2.com/solutions/school/index.html
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