26 February 2009
Richard Wiseman, Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell has confirmed that IT staff have commenced blocking undesirable websites accessed by employees whilst at work. The censorship extends only to the Web, and does not interfere with email traffic, reports the Blogger News Network.
The official notification, leaked to BNN, advises employees that Internet Content Filtering (ICF) is expanded to all internet access points globally as part of a global program to upgrade Shells networks.
“This enhancement will protect you from web-based security threats, and assist in your compliance with the Code of Conduct,” the communique announces.
The censorship came into effect Thursday, with filtering on categories explicitly banned by the Shell Code of Conduct, which include pornography, gambling and nudity. The ban is implemented anonymously and in aggregate, with only WWW traffic being checked – Shell Wide Web (SWW) sites remain unaffected.
