Re: [squid-users] open webpage category database proposal

On Saturday 26 July 2003 19.35, Antony Stone wrote:

> I agree, but I don't really see how this sort of classification is
> useful?

Because as you pointed out the world of web content is not black/white
as the case of RBL. Because of this different administrative policies
needs to be applied at differetnt locations, and these policies are
most easily built based on categories of content, where the database
is just used to distribute the classification.

> I assumed the whole point of the idea was to be able to identify
> sites carrying pornography, jokes, religious views, anarchist
> material, pirated music, copied software etc?

Yes, and to set a policy depending on the content, primarily to
administrativel block content seen as unacceptable to the local
policy.

Simply put, if you do not accept porn then set access controls in your
proxy to deny access to content classified as porn. The key of the
database is to give classifications of content, not to block content.
Blocking of content is an application of the database. Another
perhaps as interesing application is statistics to view what kind of
sites the users are visiting, without actually blocking anything (or
at least not all..).

Regards
Henrik

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