Global Voices Advocacy » Jordan

Microsoft Compromises Users' Privacy: No HTTPS in Arab Countries, Iran

Anas Qtiesh — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:50:19 +0000

With the ongoing protestes and violent crackdown from governments in the Middle East, compromising online security could have dire repercussions on the wellbeing of internet users in the region. Email security is a priority and HTTPS should be enabled by default. Gmail does that, while Microsoft allows users to choose to activate the option, and Yahoo! Mail does not offer it.

Accessnow created and circulated a much needed step-by-step guide to protect privacy online. This morning a Syrian student in Jordan approached me on twitter and said that he couldn't follow the guide to enable HTTPS for his Hotmail account. I asked him send me a screen shot and proceeded to alert Jillian York of the Berkman Center to the issue.

York, who's also an Advocacy contributor, proceeded to investigate the issue further. Her first suspicion was export controls due to sanctions imposed on Syria, but the user stated he was in Jordan and that his profile info was set to Jordan as well. That ruled out the possiblity of the problem being caused by over-complying with the export controls, so she took a closer look at the issue:

I quickly created a Hotmail account to see if I could replicate the situation; sure enough, when I set my location to the United States, I could turn on HTTPS as a setting, but when I switched to Jordan, I could not. I tested several other Arab countries–Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria–also no HTTPS. I then tested Guatemala, Israel, and Turkey: all fine. France, German: fine. Iran…no HTTPS.

The screenshot below shows the error message users from Arab countries and Iran get when attempting to activate secure connections (HTTPS) for their free webmail account provided by Microsoft.

Luckily, a temporary workaround exists for concerned users. All they need to do is change the country in their profile to the US and they would be able to set HTTPS to be used automatically. York also suggests that affected users can also switch to gmail which has the setting enabled by default globally, and she states that Microsoft has been contacted and informed about the problem. Hopefully Microsoft will handle this security risk in a timely manner.

Web filtering In the Middle East using Bing Microsoft's search engine

Tal Pavel — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:31:59 +0000

Research conducted earlier this year examined the extent of Internet filtering in Arab countries made using Bing search engine of Microsoft for terms with a sexual orientation.

Bing search engine is active in 41 languages and it offers a Web filtering system based on keywords entered into the system in advance, according to different countries. In this way, Bing avoids a free Internet usage among countries in the Middle East while performing search using terms with a sexual orientation - in English and Arabic.

The study was conducted between 2 and 15 January 2010, by inspecting 100 keywords in Arabic and 60 English. The list contains sexual terms as well as those which do not have sexual meaning (terror, violence, politics, women's rights and religion). The search was made using Bing search engine in four countries, which operates different levels of Web filtering: United Arab Emirates, Syria, Algeria and Jordan.

The results showed that Bing search engine filter terms in Arabic and English through which users can reach sexual and LGBT content. The experiment revealed that Bing search engine is filtering also some of these keywords in English when searching for images.

While performing a search using one of these keywords, the user will be noticed (in Arabic or English) that the search result may include adult content, determined by the search engine settings depending on region or country.

Bing search engine does not allow users in the Middle East to control the filtering or to turn it off. On the other hand, the study reveals that if user in the Middle East choose and use the search engine's version that matches to one of the western countries, it will not filter the list in question.

Internet filtering performed by Bing search engine is not complete; it only deals with sexual content and only in the local versions in the Middle East of the search engine. However, even so, this activity of Microsoft is a further evidence of regional governments' efforts to block websites, primarily for reasons of maintaining the values of morality, culture and religion of the local societies.

Unfortunately, this study highlights the role of organizations such as Microsoft in the issue of Internet filtering and the efforts of Middle Eastern governments to constrict free Internet in the Middle East.

A Jordanian student sentenced to two years in prison over IM

Sami Ben Gharbia — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:54:46 +0000

According to the Next Web - Middle East, citing the Ammannet website, a Jordanian computer engineering student, by the name of Imad Al-Ash, has been arrested since February, 2010, and sentenced on July 13th, 2010, by state security court to two years in prison over charges of lèse majesté for sending an IM (Instant Message) to his friend:

The IM by Al-Ash allegedly contained words that “insulted the supreme entities” (translated from Arabic) known to others as His Majesty King Abdullah of Jordan. Amongst the charges were also allegations of participation in public online forums expressing ‘controversial religious opinions’, none of which the court had substantial proof of, as expressed by his attorney.

According to a statement provided by his father to Ammannet, the college student was submitted to torture during the five months investigation carried out by the Security Services and was forced to confess crimes which he never committed.

Jordan to censor the internet

Victor Ngeny — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:00:02 +0000

Jordan's Appeal Court has extended the reach of its print and publications law to cover electronic media, meaning that it will censor sites and blogs, writing in ArabCrunch, Gaith Saqer that,

empowers authorities to prosecute or impose fines on any electronic medium of Publishing from SMS to the Internet user from Twitter user, to facebook, to journalists, bloggers and editors for publishing online material that the law finds wrong.

He quotes, Basil Okur, editor of Jordan's online news site, Ammon saying that he will comply with the law but he wonders how it will implemented considering the technical challenges the country

In the Jordan Times online paper, Hani Hazaimeh, reports thus,

Electronic media editors and activists on Thursday said the recent Cassation Court's decision to subject news websites and electronic media to the Press and Publications Law will curb Internet freedom.

It remains to be seen how the Jordanian authorities will implement the law.

Jordan: sending emails and writing online poems can send you to prison!

Sami Ben Gharbia — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 01:28:34 +0000

Yesterday (October 9, 2007), Ahmad Oweidi al-Abbadi, the 62-year-old former parliamentarian and leader of the Jordanian National Movement, was sentenced to two years in prison for “undermining state dignity”, “sending false news through emails” and “illegally distributing leaflets.”

Ahmad Oweidi al-Abbadi was arrested on May 3, 2007, for accusing the government of corruption in an open letter emailed to US senator Harry Reid. “The jailing of Ahmad Oweidi shows that Jordan’s government hasn’t shaken off its old habits of going after critics by putting them in prison,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

According to the Jordanian Al-Ghad newspaper [Ar], another Jordanian has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for writing and publishing poems on Jihadi websites praising Al Qaeda leader Osama Ben Laden. Mohammed Al-Zohairi, who is being depicted as “Al Qaeda Poet” was arrested in August 9, 2007 and charged with offense against the royal dignity.

Book Cover: “Raining Blood” on the top and “Al Qaeda Poet, Mohammed Al-Zohairi” on the bottom. Source: Warriors Literature Blog

Jordan to monitor online publications and websites

Sami Ben Gharbia — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 01:48:15 +0000

Jordan will monitor online publications and websites, Nabil Al-Momani, the assistant general manager of Jordan Printing and Publishing department announced today. From now on websites and electronic newspapers will fall under the Press and Publication Law. Al-Momani states that his department won’t impose prior censorship or restrictions on online free speech. It will focus on monitoring what is being published and will resort to the judiciary if needed.

There are serious concerns that the Jordanian approach to the Internet will comport with the limitations the gouvernment imposes on other media. Press Association's President Tareq Momani denounced the new restrictions imposed on the electronic journalism saying that : “the Internet is offering a margin of freedom that no other media outlet enjoys.

A recent report on internet censorship in Jordan released by the Open Net Initiative concluded that:

Jordanians appear to enjoy essentially unfiltered access to Internet content. However, the Press and Publications Law's broad provisions may lead some writers to engage in self-censorship. Although Jordan's government continues to develop initiatives to expand access to the Internet, laws restricting freedom of speech preserve an intimidating atmosphere that discourages free discourse on political and social issues.

On May 3, 2007, Ahmad Oweidi al-Abbadi, the 62-year-old former parliamentarian and leader of the Jordanian National Movement, was arrested for accusing the government of corruption in an open letter emailed to US senator Harry Reid. “The jailing of Ahmad Oweidi shows that Jordan's government hasn't shaken off its old habits of going after critics by putting them in prison,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

In May 2002, the former female member of the Jordanian Parliament and outspoken free speech and women's rights activist, Toujan al-Faisal was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for “false and exaggerated news” published on the Arab Times website. On June 26, 2002, she was given amnesty by King Abdullah II and released from prison.