Thursday, September 07, 2006

Speaking of Paranoid: Google is blocking privacy proxies

Boing Boing, ttrentham, reports that Google appears to be blocking searches from users of the various proxies that guard identity. Proxies like Privoxy, FoxyProxy, Tor and Vidalia can be used by anybody, but most notably by web browsers in oppressive countries to disguise their identity and location. If you try to enter a search to Google now, using one of these proxy servers, you get a 403 error message complaining that "...your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now."

I hope it's just a temporary glitch, but it's very worrisome to see such a response to searches run with privacy proxies from a company that has already changed its rules to accommodate the oppressive government of Communist China.

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