While reading about proxy abuse I noticed someone on Digg pointing out some disturbing security issues at a “liberal arts” college in the US:

Using proxies and other methods to bypass firewall restrictions, etc, aren’t just useful for viewing Myspace. I’m about to graduate from a liberal arts college with Baptist affiliations. When I started school here, it was a well-regarded school in the South, and the religious convention was only loosely associated with it Then the fundamentalist cultists came along, and that all changed. Now, the school uses its IT dept. not to set up decent Internet access or upgrade computers, but to block methods of reaching the anti-administration forum that was set up by students.

Over 80 faculty and staff have been terminated, forced into retirement, or have resigned because they couldn’t stand to see the school turned into a Southern Baptist madrassa. Guess I’m venting, but when college administrators lie, violate SACS policies with impunity, and destroy academic freedom, even a dinky little proxy is a satisfying (but small) way to speak out.

What’s the matter with education in the US? Here is another example:

While students in campus owned housing are living with mold, rats, and other dangerous conditions (due to a lack of funds, according to res-life) — our tuition money is now being spent on appliances to actively support the RIAA and MPAA, two private entities which have no legal authority. Additional money is being spent on hardware to actively block Access Points on campus, which unfortunately blocks AP’s for off-campus residents in the surrounding neighborhood as well. Due to a lack of response from [the VP of IS], this situation is now being reported by the victim to the FCC and other state and federal agencies as we speak, as this is completely illegal per Title 18 of the COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT and referenced multiple times in the USA PATRIOT ACT.

I also keep hearing about translation tricks, both language and format (e.g. mobile devices). I’m not talking about residents in Communist countries learning English, I’m talking about Americans using foreign languages to evade corporate controlled information feeds to read the news. Even an attorney I met at a social the other day told me s/he was using it to bypass a firm’s overly harsh restrictions on browsing.