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Starbucks says it'll block porn on its public Wi-Fi next year
For years, Starbucks has caught flak for not preventing its customers from watching porn on its in-store Wi-Fi. Now the coffee retailer says that next year it will introduce a filter that prevents customers from viewing porn and other explicit material in stores, as first reported by Business Insider.
[...] This week, Enough Is Enough CEO Donna Rice Hughes said Starbucks had failed to protect its customers and follow through with its plan to block explicit content. "By breaking its commitment, Starbucks is keeping the doors wide open for convicted sex offenders and others to fly under the radar from law enforcement and use free, public Wi-Fi services to access illegal child porn and hard-core pornography," she said.
A petition from Enough Is Enough said that public Wi-Fi networks "are attracting pedophiles and sex offenders" and put children at risk.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by nobu_the_bard on Thursday November 29 2018, @01:05PM (13 children)
I always thought part of the reason you had to block content like this on public wifi, was if someone found a way to do mischief with it, you could show you had made some effort to prevent such uses, and thus were not deliberately complicit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday November 29 2018, @02:43PM (12 children)
Once you go down the road of selectively blocking content
1. you end up over blocking some legitimate content
2. you may be liable for failing to block something that should have been blocked
3. blocking pr0n may be the least of your problems once the RIAA and MPAA take notice
Maybe it's just better to have a click through TOS agreement page to use the WiFi. Then you can say "it's not my fault!" "I have their MAC address." "I can produce security camera video of them at the logged times they were using them intarweb tubes."
Finally, if I can use the net, I can basically use a VPN over HTTPS to a $5 / month hosted cloud server that runs my own choice of Linux installation and whatever other software I want. How would they propose to stop that? Block all cloud hosting providers? Google, Amazon, Microsoft Azure, Digital Ocean, Linode, and many others. I would point out that last I knew, Netflix runs on Amazon's infrastructure.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Thursday November 29 2018, @02:47PM (11 children)
So someone starts looking at porn at Starbucks. What do we do?
1. Call the cops if he (or she?) whips it out and starts pleasuring themselves.
2. Call the cops if the individual is seen by other patrons or staff to be violating the law (by accessing child pornography, or some other offense such as showing off porn to children who are at the Starbucks).
3. Don't do anything if you don't see anything wrong (maybe they are surreptitiously downloading porn to use later).
Of course, if Starbucks wants to run a filter, or limit individual download speeds, or eliminate Wi-Fi entirely, that's their business. It's too bad a shitty and cringey pressure group is forcing them to do it though.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 29 2018, @02:50PM (2 children)
Here's some of the cringe [enough.org] (labeled [enough.org] "SHARE THE MEMES").
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @06:38PM (1 child)
Puritans can't meme.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday November 29 2018, @09:51PM
I'd love to see the above taking off as a meme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Touché) by pkrasimirov on Thursday November 29 2018, @04:44PM
I, for one, will welcome full Wi-Fi ban at Starbucks in hope of making all these forever-hanging
MacBook teenagersinnovative designers go away so I can drink my latte sitting.(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 29 2018, @07:03PM (6 children)
1. Correct -- call the cops
2. Correct -- call the cops
3. Bzzzzzt. At least tell the staff. Even if they don't do anything.
Having unfiltered WiFi isn't the crime. Misusing unfiltered WiFi in public is the crime.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 29 2018, @08:01PM (2 children)
In my #3 scenario, nobody sees/notices the activity. If you sit quietly in the corner and don't drop your trousers, you aren't going to be noticed by other customers (or Wi-Fi leechers), Starbucks staff, or even the security cameras which probably won't be aimed in that direction. You'd only be noticed if Starbucks was actively surveilling the connection to see what sites are visited.
I guess you can have a #2.5 where someone notices someone looking at conventional pornography, which is against Starbucks policy, and Starbucks asks the person to leave the premises. Then call the cops if they don't leave.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 29 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
I was thinking that if someone has so little self control (and self respect) that they must to be able to watch pr0n at any moment of the day, maybe they should treat themselves to some VR glasses for the sake of others nearby.
But then I'm sure Enough is Enough would have some objections to this.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday November 29 2018, @10:39PM
They could simply download it, or even torrent the porn (accessing a torrent site rather than a porn site) for later use. I wonder if the Starcocks filter will stop them from doing that?
Something something tragedy of the commons.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 30 2018, @03:13AM (1 child)
Bzzzt Wrong!
Don't tell the staff. They might think you are the culprit and have you arrested. Or some other God awful action against you.
I have done something similar at McDonalds. They tried to pin the problem on me.
Just yesterday I tried to do the right thing. Note. Bad.
If you need help then call the cops. Our stay out of it.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 30 2018, @09:24PM
Depending on where you live, even calling the cops may be a bad idea.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday November 30 2018, @08:32AM
Compare "If you break the law you should be locked up" with "you should be locked up" - completely different in meaning.
Sub-sentence quotes aren't quotes, they're fabrications.
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