Addendum regarding TalkTalk’s filtering

Polly Curtis, writing in the Guardian asked TalkTalk about the soon-to-be-announced filtering (which, I note, is being described in several quarters as an “adult content block”).

Disclaimer: I am a TalkTalk customer.

TalkTalk says:

We offer a service called Home Safe which works on the internet connection rather than setting up controls for each device in a home. This covers every device in the home.

We do already prompt Home Safe to customers it’s part of the set-up we will be making that a more prominent feature. But it is already available to all customers.

Home Safe is an interesting system. What’s most interesting about is is that it monitors every single HTTP URL you visit and grabs a copy for itself to evaluate for malicious (and, apparently, adult) content. It does this whether or not you’re opted in to the Home Safe system. There is no opt out whatsoever from the Home Safe system’s monitoring except for browsing through a tunnel or always using HTTPS connections.

(Now, everyone should know that HTTP connections are insecure and liable to interception, but the reality is that most people don’t).

TalkTalk also says:

We’re very upfront that this isn’t a silver bullet that will solve internet safety. There isn’t any technology that will absolutely protect your children.

Call me a cynic, but I do wonder how crystal clear this really is made to customers during sign-up (I can’t comment personally, as it was introduced long after we became customers ourselves).