With all of the crap going down in Iran and China recently to prevent citizens from having full access to the internet, it’s about time someone did something to help the people reclaim real access to information. That’s where Haystack, a tool built by Austin Heap, is soon to come in. Haystack will be fore Windows, Mac, and Unix, and will work specifically to combat the Iranian government’s web filtering protocols.
Sadly, my guess is that the applications that this will have to helping Chinese users break free of their government’s internet filters will be limited. At least initially, it may be possible to modify Haystack such that it can circumvent monitoring from an external source, but with the rollout of Green Dam, we’re probably bound to see some internal limitations set on what users can install on their machines. Still, the fact that Green Dam at least for now is not for Mac and Linux gives us some hope that Haystack may be a boon for the more informed techies in China.
The Haystack site is marked as coming soon, but keep an eye on that space.
