CCC's "Freedom Stick" circumvents China's firewall, just in time for The Games

Rumor has it that a large quantity of genetically-superior human beings are amassing in Beijing at the moment and attempting to squeeze into spandex-like outfits for your entertainment. Those interested in watching such tight-outfitted goings on are going to find themselves faced with even tighter internet restrictions when they get back to their hotel room or local internet cafe, thanks to that handy dandy Great Firewall of China. Lucky for them, the Chaos Computer Club has prepped a solution called the "Freedom Stick" which when plugged into a computer redirects its internet traffic over The Onion Router, a worldwide network of anonymous computers designed to hide your steps. Naturally, you can just download the software yourself, but the $30 USB dongle could come in handy if you're not on your own PC, or just want to leave behind material evidence of your indiscretion. The Freedom Stick will only be available through the duration of the Olympics, so get one while you can.

[Via Wired]

[OneLove @ Aug 8th 2008 11:36AM]

stick it to them! down with censorship.

[superfresh @ Aug 8th 2008 11:42AM]

Can it also come with a copy of Chinese Democracy?

[ShadowKain @ Aug 8th 2008 11:48AM]

Too bad the album wasn't exactly the best, partically because in my view it was only made by known badmouth,smartass, and jerk Axel Rose. Axel is one talented man, but after the group broke up, his decision to pull the rug out from under them , tak the GNR name and make anothe album was a dodgy move. Album is ok, but its tainted love (pun inteneded).

[Kevlar @ Aug 8th 2008 12:09PM]

With regards to your intended pun, please see:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns

[whatishalo? @ Aug 8th 2008 1:01PM]

isnt' it kind of late releasing this. ARen't a lot of people already there considering they started TODAY?

Maybe the Chinese government will just stop shipments. But then again, engadget is probably blocked so no one over there will know about them anyway :)

[konshuss @ Aug 8th 2008 1:15PM]

i can see how bright torquoise fonts and hot pink logos along with all the pictures of gadgets and electronics confused you into thinking you were writing on a music review site, that you then had to confirm through email from engadget that you were submitting that comment - totally understood.

i mean just yesterday i was getting into my car when i realized i was in the wheel-well of a jumbo jet... whoops, didn't pay attention there.

[konshuss @ Aug 8th 2008 1:20PM]

... and no, just because someone referenced guns n roses(not pointing out the pun) doesn't mean you should go to great lengths to be a douchebag. intended puns are one thing, but running with a pun as hard as your emaciated legs will carry you to come across as someone informed about music when it was merely mentioned in passing is SUPERdouchy.

[Jack C @ Aug 8th 2008 3:39PM]

hahaha, cool idea. I hate it how groups like Amnesty International reported ( http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=679&doc_id=160437&f_src=flffour ) they want China to change - a couple of days away from the actual games... it's kind of late now, don't you think?

[Brian @ Aug 8th 2008 11:38AM]

Very, very nice. However, I wonder what the punishment is for being caught with one of these. I don't think I want to go to Chinese jail... especially during the Olympics.

[AlexL @ Aug 8th 2008 11:44AM]

No punishment. TOR is just a distributed VPN. And China has no problems with VPNs. It realizes that most businesses need VPNs to establish secure links to their servers. In fact, ordinary Chinese netizens can easily bypass the firewall by paying a few dollars a month for a personal VPN service. The Great Firewall was never meant to be completely effective. But just by being partially effective, it does enough to encourage self-censorship, which is all that is needed to achieve its purpose.

[black @ Aug 8th 2008 11:50AM]

I bet the punishment would be real nasty too, so I wouldn't want to get caught using one. And since the labeling is in English, and its only going to be sold during the Olympics, I think its targeted towards foreigners just visiting for the Olympics more than actual citizens.


And I already feel sorry for the company if the government gets a hold of them...

[Flashpoint @ Aug 8th 2008 11:54AM]

Once you are on Chinese soil, you are subject to their laws. If you get caught with one of these, most likely, they will only detain you if you also happened to be accessing human rights blocked sites or if you happened to be planning a protest in Beijing.

I lived in China for 2 years in Shanghai, and Beijing for a shorter time. Trust me, you don't want to be caught doing anything there. Falun gong members assert that they've had followers kidnapped and tortured and even used as unwilling organ donors.

The Chinese government is worse than "1984". They lie about everything and will lie to other governments about the whereabouts of civilians if they are detained.

Why do you think the PRC claims the Tibetans were killing Han Chinese, yet never showed the vicitms in the media and also blocked news reporters from going to the Tibet region to report. BBC and CNN were blocked. This government regularly blocks news that it considers anti-PRC. Human rights violations are automatically filtered.

I'm not going to pretend China's that much worse than America cause Bush has already showed us that on a whim, the government will violate our privacy.

That's why America needs the 1st and the 2nd Amendments so badly.

If they take away the 1st Amendment, you'd better start loading your gun.

I don't know about the rest of you but I've got an AR-15 with "Liberty" inscribed on it.

[snowenloe @ Aug 8th 2008 12:08PM]

@ Flashpoint

I agree. If the shit starts to hit the fan in this world then Im heading back up to Alaska with guns loaded. Im a survival expert so staying alive is no prob. Who want to join me?

Fuck China, I cant believe they were given the opportunity to host the Olympics. What a shame. Im boycotting by not watching, who wants to join me?

[hello @ Aug 8th 2008 3:03PM]

to flashpoint:
"Why do you think the PRC claims the Tibetans were killing Han Chinese, yet never showed the vicitms in the media"
The US media doesn't want to show Tibetans killing Han chinese, because that would thwart the view in the US that Han people kill Tibetans. In Chinese news, there are pictures and even videos of Tibetans beating Han Chinese and even torturing them. Youtube has many available for viewing. Be aware that many videos showing Han beating Tibetans are not correct, because Han police don't wear those types of uniforms. It is more likely some SE Asian police.

"blocked news reporters from going to the Tibet region to report. BBC and CNN were blocked."
That is because the US media distorts EVERYTHING. For example, since US media doesn't have pictures of Han beating Tibetans, the news companies use pictures of Southeast Asian cops beating Tibetans. I can tell from their uniforms.

"This government regularly blocks news that it considers anti-PRC."
I think almost all media, regardless of country, blocks anti-government material, because it creates a threat to the news company's survival.

Human rights violations are automatically filtered.
Most Chinese agree that there aren't many human rights violations in China. Those that think there are many human rights violations are the criminals. In any country, criminals always complain.

[bjsguess @ Aug 8th 2008 4:44PM]

@ Hello ...

No human rights violations?

Of course most Chinese agree that violations are not occurring. That might have something do with gov't controlled media? The better question to ask is how many people, with full access to the media, believe that the Chinese gov't systematically suppresses human rights.

[Mobius_1 @ Aug 8th 2008 11:04PM]

China's human rights is not by any means perfect, and I'm saying that as a Chinese person, on one hand it does bring some social stability and REALLY fast economic development, but on the other hand, we can't vote, people can't protest against the commies (I don't love them), and lots of activists get jailed. But despite all this, USA et al sometimes are quite hypocritical, listening in on everyone's phone, checking everyone's emails (with help of NSA), and refusing lots of visas to people simply because they are not married or some other insane reason.

If I'm wrong about the USA due to ignorance or incorrect understanding of information, forgive me, but really, human rights is rather objective and far from perfect in any country, even the USA which should be like completely free and all

(Are those SEALs and Chinese Spec-Ops I see coming through my window? in their Segways?)

[UERD @ Aug 8th 2008 11:42AM]

Wouldn't it make sense to not have 'FREEDOM STICK' and 'chinesewall.ccc.de' in big bold letters on your government-subverting Internet-filter-bypassing USB stick?

[neofolklore @ Aug 8th 2008 2:17PM]

rofl.

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/Asking_for_it

[jdw242b @ Aug 8th 2008 11:44AM]

OMNI Magazine had a write up of the future's genetically modified humans competing in a super Olympics. I doubt that article is on the net though...

Someone please prove me wrong!

[iptydafu @ Aug 8th 2008 1:08PM]

Dude! I totally remember that issue! But it was all olympic athletes. It had a picture of a white guy and a black girl, both like ten feet tall in super-spandex being serviced by a pit-crew of normal people. Picture spooked the hell out of me.

[EricR @ Aug 8th 2008 1:09PM]

I think I read that -- wasn't it printed in the 80s?

[limemonkey @ Aug 8th 2008 11:45AM]

Congratulations to the Germans! They have finally found Tor! Wow!

Guess what? Every Chinese who has a need to access blocked sites knows how to get around the firewall. The only people who are dumb and naive enough are the journalists covering the games. You go to China without any kind of VPN and expect everything to work? I don't know about you, but if I connect to a unknown network, the first thing i do, is start up my vpn....

and no, i don't know anybody ever getting arrested for using tor or vpn for surfing porn or wikipedia!

[UK31337 @ Aug 8th 2008 11:52AM]

"Congratulations to the Germans! They have finally found Tor! Wow!"

Funny you should say that, actually; "Tor" is the German word for "gateway" so you'd think they might have noticed...

I'm actually surprised that the Chinese government don't care about VPNs, seeing as there's plenty of highly computer literate people there. Kudos to them if they can get their content in and out undetected, the Great Firewall of China is basically overkill.

[black @ Aug 8th 2008 11:56AM]

Chances are that if you're reading this article you know a thing or two about bypassing firewalls, so it would look like a waste of time for us. But if you don't know squat about computers, or networks, this would be an appealing option. So not everyone is a L33T computer genius...

[limemonkey @ Aug 8th 2008 12:03PM]

You see, the only things i can think of right now being blocked is wordpress.com, the falungong and some other related sites, pornography and anti-chinese sites. Except to some victims (free blog hosting), the blockage is equivalent to Germanys blockage of Skinhead, rightist and pornographic websites. i don't want to excuse any wrong doings the chinese goverment is doing, but it's not as bad as the western media makes it to be. Most of the time i don't use any vpns, like right now. and if your mom and pop comes to china to see the games, they won't be arrested for posting photos to flickr. i also don't think they will have any need to inform themself about the falungong.

it's a cheap publicity stunt by the ccc, and the media jumped at it.

[Keff @ Aug 9th 2008 10:41PM]

Limemonkey: You mean subtle differences like
http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&q=Tiananmen&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
and
http://images.google.com/images?rls=en&q=Tiananmen&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi
???

[Keff @ Aug 10th 2008 12:53PM]

I post a mail exchanged to the topic:

> From: Limemonkey
>
> I'd reply you on engadget, but i got my account *BLOCKED* for posting
> the *two* posts there. That's your ****ing freedom of speech!
>
> i was trying to post: tianamen was 19 years ago, get over it.
> Nobody of my generation gives a shit about it, it's the equivalent of
> osama taking a dump in his cave. i believe the people who were trying
> to push china into chaos got what they deserved, to think anything
> else is _naive_. It's 2008, everything has changed since 1989, if you
> can't see it, i'm sorry for you.
>
> Good luck to you,
>
> Lm.

Sorry mate, I'm not stupid American, I was a child when we had a revolution that turned our central european country from communistic dictature with state reulated 'parody of market' to democracy and capitalism.
Yes, of course, we had 'democratic votes' before '89, but there was just one party to choose from, and who didn't attend votes, got prosecuted in a very mild ways - no prisons, 'just' your kid wasn't admitted to university, you never got promoted in work, etc - nothing that would get into negative news, but it controlled your whole life, because regime could punish your family for your deeds.
No ecology, whole villages and cities were destroyed because of coal mining, inhabitants moved without ability to choose where, and a mountain range of trees dead of acid rain was left behind.
Independent art? Yes, but not in TVs, not in radio, not in galleries - that was a place for 'regime approved' artists. You could visit alternative artist in their home, go to a secret concert in barn, and if a policeman saw you, you had serious problem.
Sounds familiar? Thats China today, only with shinier stadiums and more cameras to overlook the people.
Only change in China is that it learned to keep its dictatorship in a ways that are hard to express in 2 minutes on evening news, so no one cares.

Good luck opening your eyes, TK

[ShadowKain @ Aug 8th 2008 11:50AM]

@limemonkey

This device is obviously meant for those who dont know, are coming FROM OTHER COUNTRIES and need access to everything during their stay, and the chinese who simply just don't know about it. It clear to me that you think every mom and dad has firewall circumvention software. Moron...

[ShadowKain @ Aug 8th 2008 11:52AM]

Do you live in china year long? Then how do you know this? If you have a few friends from China, yes im sure their opinions represent ALL of china's 1 Billion plus population. Don't bash such a neat device that makes things exceedingly easy for thoes who don't care to get the tech themselves....

[Razgriz @ Aug 8th 2008 12:16PM]

This is definitely useless.
1. They will search and ban this kind of USB stick from now on.
2. Even you got USB stick, The PC already installed software to monitor your activities...

[Wormbolt @ Aug 8th 2008 12:19PM]

I wonder if there will be many pirated versions of this in China.

[stephen @ Aug 8th 2008 1:00PM]

so would a SOCKS 5 proxy not work in china?

[Adrian Williams @ Aug 8th 2008 1:48PM]

30 bucks for a 10 buck usb drive with freeware ?WTF

[BigD145 @ Aug 8th 2008 3:28PM]

It's like buying a CD or DVD with Linux on it. You pay for the medium and a little extra on the side.

[m16 @ Aug 8th 2008 1:57PM]

TOR isnt exactly secure...I think its a far cry from "freedom" when you just swap out the govt from spying on you to basement hackers spying on you.

Just say no to TOR, and yes to private VPN.

[Brian @ Aug 8th 2008 2:21PM]

The chinese government is bypassing their firewall. Internet Cafes, hotels, and public wi-fi hotspots around the olympics will not be effected. Contractors were specificlly instructed to make sure forign visitors were not efffected by any blocks or filters. There is no way they would let visitors feel the contol they subject their own people to because the leaders know what they do on a daily basis is wrong and a complete violation of basic human rights.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall

[hello @ Aug 8th 2008 3:08PM]

um, blocking pornography is not a human rights violation.

[Brian @ Aug 8th 2008 3:27PM]

hey hello, who said anything about pornography? i was talking about absolute control of people. and absolute control of information. without input from the people in a democratic way. clear violations of human rights. try reading the info in the link. sounds to me like somebody has a problem with pornography, and i'm not talking about an opposition to it. Perv.

[jake @ Aug 8th 2008 6:15PM]

Actually it is quite easily to bypass China's "Great firewall" if you want to, as many people have said. In fact the many of the blocked organizations give you instructions to do so (usually through a proxy or VPN as mentioned in the article). So this is not absolute control of information, you can still get through it quite easily; the article even mentions uncensored foreign libraries can be read in Chinese libraries. The problem is self-censorship: most people don't bother to learn about outside sources just because of the hassle.

So it's bad, but definitely not as bad as most Americans think (I get the impression a lot of people think there are police patrolling everywhere monitoring everyone, or worst than "1984"). The internet should be opened up, but as for a democratic government in China that's more arguable. It is not a foregone conclusion every government should be democratic, and I don't think most of us know enough about how China's government operates to really point out how democracy can fit in. Despite the country of China having thousands of years of history, their government is very young at 60 years. I feel there is still a lot they have to learn. Perhaps a good first step is to get China to open out their information sources and see how that goes. Of course this is hard to convince them to do when most of the Americans I see on the internet (in general, ie at Yahoo's news comments or on Youtube, not Engadget) scream "F*ck China! Free Tibet!" whenever there is news on China. There are people who criticize China and genuinely care about China's future, but it's hard to separate them from the noise of people who just wants to see China embarrassed.

[Mark S @ Aug 8th 2008 3:38PM]

Hey fuck you mongolians! Don't you break down my wall!

[TheGasMan @ Aug 8th 2008 4:56PM]

"Naturally, you can just download the software yourself, but the $30 USB dongle could come in handy if you're not on your own PC, or just want to leave behind material evidence of your indiscretion."
...Couldn't you just download the software yourself and put it on your own USB dongle?

[The Hig @ Aug 8th 2008 6:12PM]

How exactly is this worth more than a long-standing alternative that was made for the same reason and is distributed for free from http://www.democrakey.com/

I commend their effort, but I hate that they are charging for it

[jimb @ Aug 8th 2008 6:39PM]

In the Peoples Republic of China the firewall of china censors you.

[Neil Fiertel @ Aug 8th 2008 8:55PM]

I would not suggest breaking Chinese laws no matter how wrong you feel they are unless you are willing to sacrifice a kidney or your life to do it as they are known to harvest organs from those that are in their prisons. There is no waiting period for organ transplants in China so what does that mean? It means that having a freedom stick could end your days of completeness, that's what. They do not have the same view of human rights as do we. it is the way it is and until the Chinese have sufficient education to realise what they are missing, it is not going to happen, freedom stick or no. There are after all one and a half billion Chinese citizens and if they wanted change, they would get it with one gigantic strike or sit down. It does not happen as most people are glad to get three square meals a day and a decent place to live, some health care and now even what we take for granted such as television and electric lights. The vast majority are happy with those simple pleasures. They have not yet understood what they are missing..yet but they will as education is the catalyst of change. Being an interloper and a foreigner patronising people by subverting one of their prime principles which encompasses national pride, striving for a better life, sharing within their society and so forth with what can only be seen as subversion will backfire. Our beliefs might just not be theirs and our presumptions that the Age of Enlightenment ought to be theirs is a kind of religious faith not necessarily shown to be a universal fact. Naturally, I would be happy for them to assume the role of a democractic society but it is for them to decide this on their own otherwise it is nothing more than being a missionary for OUR WAY.

[leo @ Aug 9th 2008 2:26AM]

last time i was in China, i couldn't access the canadian embassy website. which was, of course, ridiculous. i needed to find an alternative means of finding the address to the shanghai canadian embassy.

[Joshua Walters @ Aug 9th 2008 8:45PM]

Now would be an EXCELENT time to smuggle this shit into China.