Frequently Asked Questions.
A listing of frequently asked questions.
Please choose from one of the links below.
Closed Loop Collaborative
Filtering is ContentKeeper’s closed circuit system designed
to collect, analyze, categorize, edit and distribute web site URL’s
worldwide.
ContentKeeper units in the
field are designed to poll the ContentKeeper Datacentre hourly
to receive control list updates of newly discovered and processed
URL’s. During this process, any new suspect URL’s discovered
locally are encoded, encrypted, compressed and sent back to the
Datacentre for anonymous submission to our AI (Artificial Intelligence)
analysis and categorization engines. Sites that are then confirmed
to fall into one of the control categories are added to the control
list updates and collected automatically by every ContentKeeper
unit in the field. This means (for example) that when a ContentKeeper
user in New York browse to a new URL which contains pornography,
ContentKeeper users in Sydney Australia will have the benefit of
that update usually within two hours of the discovery being made.
Closed Loop Collaborative
Filtering™ Technology is also utilized to help maintain and
edit the existing control list. ContentKeeper administrators worldwide
have the ability to instantly block, un-block and re-classify any
sites locally. Locally re-classified sites are sent to the ContentKeeper
Datacentre for manual review and Control List correction, if necessary.
Closed Loop Collaborative
Filtering™ ensures that ContentKeeper’s control list
is the most relevant, highest quality and fastest growing list
available.
URLs can be in several categories
for example “www.playboy.com” is categorized in the
adult sites/porn, entertainment and shopping.
There are some major rules we apply when filtering on multiple
policies;
- The global policy is applied
first before any other policy an takes precedence over everything
else. The idea of the global policy is to prevent administrators
from having to change individually every policy which can both
tedious and error prone if you have 100 of them, especially if
every time some new control needs applying.
- In this way administrators
can change a minor aspect and have it picked up by every policy.
- We then apply the least restrictive policy progressively by policies
with ever increasing restrictions. If a URL is allowed in one policy
and blocked in another it will be allowed - (assuming that all
else is equal, see “Default” policy).
- We then apply the policy with the most definitive units (individual
names and single IP addresses) first then through to groups and
networks etc.
- The "default" policy is applied last and is a catch all
policy.
No. In the recommended configuration,
ContentKeeper is located in most installation to ensure that all
network traffic to and from the Internet passes through its control.
Any attempts to bypass the filter are blocked and logged as an
access violation. ContentKeeper is rated for full Gigabit support.
The subscription
includes;
- Automatic hourly database updates
- Automatic operating system and software
upgrades
- Hardware and software support
The CK-AI (‘seek high’)
database is the ContentKeeper Technologies brand name designation
for the Artificial Intelligence based process by which the filter
list of URLs is classified into various categories. Manual reviews
are taken of exceptions and out of range sites to ensure the database
is completely accurate.
The CK-AI database outperforms
all other rating systems;
- No other organization can guarantee 100%
human review of all sites as there are often more that 40,000
new sites each day coming on stream 24 hours per day seven days
per week. To try to do so would cost far more than users can
justify.
- The CK-AI engine together with exception
and partial human intervention allow CK to address this load
whilst doing so in an economical manner for users for today and
in the future so ensuring the longevity of the solution and assuring
users that the system can never be overloaded.
- Employing both mechanisms is better than
just human based or machine or keyword rating.
- Sites are rated by parent URL rather than
IP address
- Provide a variety of acquisition methods.
Global collaboration together with innovative automatic searching
ensures our database can retain it’s reputation as the
fastest growing and most rapidly changing database.
- Quick review of new sites (hourly).
- Provides clearly defined categories.
- Maintains a strong review process.
- Global hourly client submission process.
The ABA defines prohibited
Internet content according to Australian legislation introduced
in 1992 and since modified regulations.
The ABA provides direction
to ISP's and manufacturers of IIA approved filtering products to
include facility to block a list of ABA prohibited sites. This
facility must be included in all relevant applications.
ContentKeeper Technologies
is provided with similar policy guidance, which is included in
the detection rules across several of the defined categories. The
ABA list is directly loaded into ContentKeeper category 25, this
list of sites is confidential. Updates are provided to ContentKeeper
Technologies every two weeks and disseminated to all appliances
immediately.
ContentKeeper is managed
via the Administrator’s Console accessible by any web browser.
There are two reasons for
an ‘Include IP address in the Excluded/Included IP address
page. The first is to help the administrator to more easily see
what is going on, there are only two defined choices effectively
reducing the chance of confusion. Also it is convenient to specify
either Included IP Address or Excluded IP Address depending on
how many of each you may need to type in.
‘Other rules’ is
a feature to assist in the evaluation, implementation of and customization
of ContentKeeper.
One option relates to whether
or not users under the control of a blocking policy are to be reported
in the blocking reports. ‘Other Rules’ can also be
used to run CK in silent mode for a particular individual, group
of individuals or subnets etc, allowing you to audit their activity
before you formulate the policies to meet theirs as well as corporate
needs. Some organizations apply blocking in stages and do so by
transparently monitoring sections of their organization’s
activity before implementation.
