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SUMMARY:Characterization of Internet Censorship from Multiple Perspectives
  - Shehar Bano\, University College London
DTSTART:20170525T121000Z
DTEND:20170525T130000Z
UID:TALK72751@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:KC Sivaramakrishnan
DESCRIPTION:Censorship of online communications threatens principles of op
 enness and freedom of information on which the Internet was founded. In th
 e interest of transparency and accountability\, and more broadly to develo
 p scientific rigour in the field\, we need methodologies to measure and ch
 aracterize Internet censorship. Such studies will not only help users make
  informed choices about information access\, but also illuminate entities 
 involved in or affected by censorship\; informing the development of polic
 y and enquiries into the ethics and legality of such practices. However\, 
 many issues around Internet censorship remain poorly understood because of
  the inherently adversarial and opaque landscape in which it operates. As 
 details about mechanisms and targets of censorship are usually undisclosed
 \, it is hard to define exactly what comprises censorship\, and how it ope
 rates in different contexts.\n\nMy research aims to help fill this gap by 
 developing methodologies to derive censorship ground truth using active an
 d passive data analysis techniques\, which I apply to real-world datasets 
 to uncover entities involved in censorship\, the targets of censorship\, a
 nd the effects of such practices on different stakeholders. In this talk\,
  I will provide an overview of my work on Internet censorship from multipl
 e perspectives: (i) measurement of the Great Firewall of China that shows 
 that inference of the censor’s traffic analysis model can enable systema
 tic identification of evasion opportunities that users can exploit to acce
 ss restricted content\, (ii) analysis of network logs collected at an Inte
 rnet Service Provider (ISP) in Pakistan over a period of escalating censor
 ship to study how censorship affects users’ browsing habits with respect
  to circumvention\, and its economic effects on content providers and ISPs
 \, and (iii) investigation of differential treatment -- an emerging class 
 of censorship where websites (rather than the government) block requests o
 f users they don’t like -- in the context of Tor anonymity network and u
 sers of adblocking software.
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
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