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ICLab

by Calipr Networking Group

CICS UMass Amherst

Information Controls Lab

Information Controls Lab (ICLab) is a project focused on collecting and analyzing information controls data on the Internet at a global scale.

At ICLab, we regularly run information controls experiments on a large number of vantage points spread all over the world. Some of these vantage points are Raspberry Pis running the Centinel software, while others are VPN clients and Virtual Private Servers (VPS). These experiments include a standard set of tests designed to detect and analyze web content blocking, the results of which are processed by our data management server and can be explored using the web application available here.

News

ICLab was featured among other censorship measurement platforms in a series of stories about Internet shutdowns by IEEE Spectrum

Our ICLab member, Zachary Weinberg, was interviewed by Jeremy Hsu from IEEE Spectrum about Internet shutdowns
Mar 19, 2020 2 min read

ICLab paper got accepted to The 41st IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy

Our paper titled: ICLab: A Global, Longitudinal Internet Censorship Measurement Platform recently got accepted to the IEEE Security and …
Last updated on Sep 1, 2019 2 min read
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Members

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Phillipa Gill

Associate Professor - Principal Investigator

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Nicolas Christin

Associate Professor

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Zachary Weinberg

Postdoctoral Researcher

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Shinyoung Cho

PhD student

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Diogo Barradas

Visiting Researcher

Publications & Reports

ICLab: A Global, Longitudinal Internet Censorship Measurement Platform

Researchers have studied Internet censorship for nearly as long as attempts to censor contents have taken place. Most studies have …
Code Video Data (on Internet Archive) Data (on Google Drive) Preprint

How to Catch when Proxies Lie: Verifying the Physical Locations of Network Proxies with Active Geolocation

Internet users worldwide rely on commercial network proxies both to conceal their true location and identity, and to control their …
PDF Code Preprint

A Churn for the Better: Localizing Censorship using Network-level Path Churn and Network Tomography

Recent years have seen the Internet become a key vehicle for citizens around the globe to express political opinions and organize …
PDF Preprint

Exploring the Design Space of Longitudinal Censorship Measurement Platforms

Despite the high perceived value and increasing severity of online information controls, a data-driven understanding of the phenomenon …
Code DOI Preprint

Information Controls during Military Operations: The case of Yemen during the 2015 political and armed conflict

Key Findings This report provides a detailed, mixed methods analysis of Information controls related to the Yemen armed conflict, with …
PDF Original white paper Press release (English) Press release (قراءة في العربية)
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Talks

Developing a Science of Internet Censorship Resistance

Opportunities and Challenges for Network Measurement
Jan 18, 2018 2:30 PM — 3:00 PM USENIX Enigma
Video

An empirical method for measuring Internet censorship

Phillipa Gill is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her work focuses …
Nov 8, 2017 — MIT
Video

Meet the Innovators Under 35 - Security Roundtable

Five years ago, when Phillipa Gill began a research fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, she was surprised to find …
Nov 8, 2017 — MIT
Video

Media Coverage

How to Detect a Government's Hand Behind Internet Shutdowns

ICLab was featured among other censorship measurement platforms in a series of stories about Internet shutdowns by IEEE Spectrum.
Press release

Q&A: The science of online censorship

Information doesn’t flow through the internet as freely as it seems. Depending on which country you live in, you may see …
Press release

Yemen rebels using Canadian software to censor Internet, report finds

Canadian Internet filtering company is helping Houthi rebels block sensitive political content, media, Israeli websites
Press release

Canadian Internet-filtering company accused of aiding censorship in war-torn Yemen

Internet-filtering software from a Canadian company is cutting people in Yemen off from crucial information during a time of war, a new …
Press release

Canadian software tied to Yemen civil war, report alleges

A new report alleges that made-in-Canada software is being used to cut Yemen’s citizens off from learning about the civil war …
Press release

Canadian Web Co. Helps Yemen Censor Net

A Canadian Internet filtering company is blocking Internet content in Yemen as part of an information blackout by rebel Houthis who …
Press release

Researchers Accuse Canadian Internet Company of Helping Yemen Censor the Web

Citizen Lab says the Houthi rebels got help from Netsweeper to censor news and political websites.
Press release

We are very grateful to the following sponsors for supporting our research:

Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in research outputs (published papers, talks, blog postings, etc.) are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors.