When large enterprises like Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft join forces, you can be fairly certain politics are involved. Typically, this translates to some sort of lobbying effort, but if we're lucky, the issue is human rights. In 2008, those three tech giants -- along with a host of universities and policy institutes -- formed the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an effort to maintain the privacy and freedom of citizens across a world when those rights can be compromised by modern technology.
On Thursday, Websense -- a large enterprise e-mail and data security developer -- said it will join the GNI. It's an interesting addition in that its main business is web filtering. But it filters for companies, not governments, and Websense points to a long-held policy against selling to governments or ISPs that engage in government-mandated censorship. By joining GNI, Websense will commit to an external audit that its software is not used in any manner contrary to US government anti-censorship policy and the Internet freedom policies outlined in the GNI charter.
"We hope to work with the GNI to help influence other providers of similar technologies to make the right choice," David Rand, Websense's senior director of communications tells Wired.com.
Though GNI started with some very big tech names, it has been slow to build on them. Evoca, a developer of voice recording software, was the fourth private sector outfit to join back in July, and Websense is the fifth. But with the uprisings in the Middle East -- where American technologies are apparently showing up on the wrong side of the fight -- there is more pressure than ever on U.S. companies to police their own goods.
Rand believes there are two reasons tech companies are not joining GNI. Either they don't want to say no to certain business, or they're simply unaware of the issues.
In 2009, Websense shut off access to its database when a hacktivist group informed the company that the Yemeni government was likely using the company's software to monitor citizens. WebSense investigated and blocked the Yemeni ISP's from reaching its database for necessary updates.
David Sullivan, GNI's policy director spoke to Wired as he was walking out of a hearing regarding the Global Online Freedom Act, a measure from Congress that would tighten the restrictions on U.S. companies dealing with governments with poor human rights records. "GNI's principles can apply to companies of all sizes," he says. "Not just giants like Google and Microsoft."
[Photo: marcovdz/Flickr]
