SmartFilter: Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics: Press Release

New York, June 23, 1999 - Last Friday, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) toured Secure Computing Corporation, makers of "SmartFilter," and was told that a three-month old report by the Censorware Project proves that product's accuracy. The Censorware Project is an activist organization opposing the use of content-blocking software in libraries and universities, and its report clearly shows the opposite. The Project strongly protests the misuse of its name to support pro-censorship legislation.

Today, the Senate Commerce Committee approved Sen. McCain's filtering bill (S.97), which subsidizes censorware by mandating its installation in every school and library which receives E-Rate funds.

"Apples and oranges," said Project member Jamie McCarthy. "Secure Computing's phony math compares two numbers from different categories to claim their product has only 0.0006% error. Our real-world analysis shows that errors occur eight thousand times more often. Every twenty times their software blocks a library patron from reading, say, hustler.com, it blocks another from reading Mark Twain, William Shakespeare, or the Declaration of Independence. Secure Computing's software can't tell the difference -- and its PR spin is an illustration of Twain's classic adage about lies, damn lies, and statistics."

Added McCarthy, "The Bill of Rights doesn't allow our government to burn Shakespeare, even if they try burning twenty Hustlers to make up for it."

Though the raw data from the Censorware Project's report was made available, Secure Computing never obtained this data - which was drawn from 31 days of logs, not the "two-week period" that Secure Computing claims. In a followup report released today, the Censorware Project exposes the statistical sleight-of-hand, sheds light on last year's censored sites still censored to this day, and reveals new blocks which were not listed in the original report.

"One is 'Responses to the Holocaust,'" said Project member Michael Sims. "SmartFilter blocked it from Utah students in September and they still block it today. Only because its blacklist is put together by a computer, with no effective human oversight, can documentation of Nazi genocide be called 'hate speech.'"

Another wrongly-blocked site not mentioned in the March report is that of the Censorware Project itself. Secure Computing's first reaction to the same criticism that it now praises as an "exhaustive and thorough review" was to ban it under all 27 blacklist categories. Censorship of critics is common with this type of software.

The Censorware Project also found accessing inappropriate material to be easy, using the latest version of the software. "With the trial proxy installed, I found hardcore porn within three minutes, and instructions for making drugs and bombs were just a few clicks away," said McCarthy.

The Censorware Project has written to the president of Secure Computing, demanding that he withdraw the false information in the company's press release.

-30-

our Utah followup report

the original Utah report

This document last updated on Thursday September 07 2000.