I was telling a friend about this the other day and I thought I would share it with all of you for your consideration. This was on Princess

Like many these days I bring a laptop and use the ship's wireless. But just to check my e-mail every once in awhile I just use the ship's computers. It's just easier. One day I tried to access my hotmail account and couldn't open any e-mail. I got a message that said "Access denied due to content". For everything. I went back to the room, retrieved my laptop, and had no trouble logging on to my own msn e-mail page. There was a joke that someone had sent me with a 4 letter word in it, I deleted that e-mail and after that I didn't have anymore problems with the ship's computers.

So one day I decided to make a post on cc's Princess board wondering what would have happened if I did not have my laptop and could not have access to my e-mail for the entire cruise. (there was supposed to be a computer support people on the ship but I never saw them)

Wow! I got responses back like it was Princess's computers and they had every right to ban my e-mail and I should shut up. It was a privilege not a my right to read my own dirty e-mail. What was I doing surfing porn on my vacation. A Child could read that joke in the Internet cafe over my shoulder and it would ruin his life. It's probably still in the cc archives but this thread went on for pages.

Of coarse there were those on my side and the argument festered. Everyone gets a dirty joke or unwanted spam. I'm sure the ship could of fixed it if I didn't have my laptop. This can't be the first time this has happened. But it made for a good time on the Internet on a rough sea day in the North Sea.

Hi Chips. In many cases the folks on CC are not very diplomatic in their responses. But in my opinion, the gist of what they are saying is correct. Basically, the person who owns the computer gets to decide what's on the computer. It's that simple. Unfettered Internet access is not a right when you're using someone else's computer.

I would even go one step further and contend the cruise line has the right to restrict what you can access in your own cabin on your own laptop. They have a legitimate right to protect their liability if, for example, people are accessing child porn sites from the ship.

Now if you were using a compter owned by the public, the library for example, you might have a stronger argument against censorship because those computers are owned by the government. I think the answer depends on the community where you live.

It could be worse. We could be living in China where there is no uncensored Internet access allowed.

The issue of censorship comes up all the time with freedom of the press. In reality, freedom of the press applies to those who own the press, not those who write for the press. Tom.

But that's overkill in my opinion. To deny access to all e-mail based on the content of one. Yeah deny access to the one. That's fair. Deny access to clearly illegal sites. That's a given. I depend on shipboard e-mail to communicate with my elderly Mother, my Daughters and the outside world. Plus I pay for that service and expect to be able to use it.

We all get spam with stuff in it. Wouldn't it be a bad thing if out in the middle of a ocean you lost all contact over something like this.

They are using word serch software of some kind. It's not the Captain making these desicions. Even if it was I would support that, he is responceable for the safty of all. But there has got to be a better way than that.

I wonder if this is a policy of all lines?

Not on the high seas, but a similar thing happened when I was in Dubai and wanted to utilise the internet to contact my credit card company, I was blocked, their name Virgin.

chip - I actually read that thread on the CC Princess board some time ago, LOL.

I have to agree with Tom as well though - the Internet is not a given right and when you surf/email on someone else's system, you're bound by their rules. And I think all cruise lines do this to some extent - some more imperfectly than others. To do so otherwise, would open them up to more liability than they'd be willing to take on.

Masaki

ok I give up. I just hope it doesn't happen again. That's another reason I bring my laptop. So I can read my dirty porn in the Atrium in full view of the main desk. They should at least tell you up front about that. They didn't.

You know if something happened to my mother for instance. Who had my emergency contact info and I missed the funeral. Well I would be getting free cruises for a very long time. Now that's liability.

Chip, that is a good reason to give your family the contact info for your ship. That way, they can call you if need be if you are not in cell phone range.

I am pretty sure that all cruise lines, Regent included, has filters on their internet service.

I doubt that Regent or Silverseas would do that. They have a computer support staff and could probably get around their software. Princess is so big that they don't have anyone to talk to.

This is the first time I have ever heard of this it's can't happen that often. It just amazes me that we have come to this, where someone gets to decide to cut you off. I think being able to communicate like we do on a ship is one of the neatest things. It makes this board what it is. I guess I'll have to get used to the restrictions(I really have never looked at a porn site, just some of my Father's playboys when I was like 12) .

As for the tread on cc, I didn't like the implication that I was some sort of pervert. But as someone pointed out that's cc. It's very easy to be flamed there over nothing. I never did understand how cruising can get so controversial on message boards.

BTW, there was a couple of kids looking at blonds in the computer room one night. It was sort of hard to miss. So their software was maybe needs some fine tuning.

Actually, this just happened to me on the Pride of Hawaii (NCLA). I was surfing on my own laptop on the ship's wireless and trying to find a restaurant that I had been to in the past in Kona called Oodles of Noodles (no longer there, RIP). The website used to be www.oodleskona.com. I tried surfing to it and the filter kicked in and said that I couldn't access that website on their server because it was considered "porn", LOL. It did say to contact the Internet manager if there was a problem with it. I just laughed it off and found my information in other ways.

Masaki

I don't know. I have to sort of agree with Chip. I know that one of my email accounts constantly gets spam mail...things like how if I use a certain blue pill, I can um...sustain myself longer or I can um...stretch, or um...meet that someone special for a night. I'd say 98% of it does go to spam, but I still have to physically delete what's in my spam folder.

I use that account for people trying to contact me from the web site I own. (it's a drawing site!)

I would hate to have a problem with the site and not be able to check on it if I was on a ship. I don't know, seems to me it would be more effective to block sites that cater to porn or even youngsters looking at blondes, but to block our emails?

The way it usually works is that the web page is screened by the ship's servers (or any server that supplies net service for a public area) for offensive content. This might be based on location/site of pictures (for catching pornographic images) or based on text (black listed words). Computers are not smart enough yet to be able to consistently recognize banned images based on image recognition algorithms (though that is not far away from becoming commercially feasible).

So, the problem that Chip experienced might have been because one of those banned words was in the SUBJECT of the email sent to him. If it was, when you try to access your inbox and it lists your incoming emails and their subjects, it tries to display the page and the filter catches the banned word and prevents the inbox from displaying. This obviously is a problem since it prevents you from getting to the inbox at all to delete the message so you can go about reading your regular mail.

Unfortunately, no good solution to this except setting up a sterile email address (one that doesn't get used or handed out except for emergency purposes and has enough complexity to the address such that it can't be hit upon by spammers by brute attack random email generation) or to set your spam filters to be extremely sensitive so that they shunt all these emails (and possibly some of your desired emails) to a spam folder.

Arlene - the email account you talk about above gets hit with spam because you have a link to it from your website. It got harvested from there, most likely. Do you have your email address actually displayed or do you have a script that emails you when somebody presses a button?

Masaki

Chip - There's now a priceless story about our son-in-law (Coast Guard) having to figure out which cruise ships were in a certain vicinity on a certain day to find us. Gary's mother had a time critical life threatening health problem. Regent actually found us in the dining room thanks to a stepdaughter who would not take "no" for an answer. Grandma survived, but it was a wake-up call for us. We now leave emergency information with the family members and it's been better for everyone's piece of mind.

FWIW, I'm glad you raised the topic. At least you were able to get through on your laptop when you were blocked in the computer room. I'm not at all sympathetic about the blocking software applying to personal laptops. Those computers are not readily accessible to the general passenger population. The theoretical liability issue argument doesn't hold up. What about kids viewing R rated DVDs (or movies on the TV channels)? That's got to be a greater source of liability. The cruise lines willingly make that material available to their passengers. It strikes me blocking an entire e-mail account because the software is picking up one or more questionable phrases in a subject line is the electronic equivalent of killing a fly with a sledge hammer.

Cheers, Anne

Masaki, it was a word in the text of the e-mail. Remember it well. You couldn't look up a cooking site, bet you could still get your e-mail.

The question is how far does this go. Should you be able to text those "girls" you see on late night TV with your cell phone. As for surfing child porn in your room. Is that really a problem or a risk on , well at least, on the lines we all cruise? Should cruise lines quit serving alcohol because someone might get drunk and fall overboard.

E-mail is one of the principle ways to communicate for world travelers. It makes world travel possible for those that couldn't before because of business or family. Plus the cruise lines all advertise that this service is available.

Richard's Mercedes Club site just bleeps out the offending word. You can't even say damn, it appears ----. Use that technology. If it isn't available leave it alone.

Chip, You seem to be forgetting that you are using the ships computers when you are getting censored. They have the right to control what is viewed on their equipment. Accessing the Internet from the ships computers is a convenience for the passengers, not a right.

As for you cell phone, it is your cell phone not the ships, so your example in this case makes no sense.

As someone else mentioned in an earlier post, create an email address just for friends and family. That way, you know you won't get spam with censor triggering words.

I really like Anne's phrasing. We never know when somebody is going to send through a forwarded email or something along those lines, that has a word on "the list" in it. Yes, it is the cruiseline's right to "protect" their customers from "harm", but there has to be some way to do it other than blocking an entire email account. I've blithely assumed that Sonja or Jason could get through to us in case of need, so I've dropped the ball on leaving all those phone numbers that are questionable as to whether or not either of them could get through. Sonja would come closer to not taking "no" for an answer, but Jason would go into meltdown.

Also, how would either of them know that my email account had been blocked because XYZ (who they have never heard of) had decided to forward an email with a "bad word" in it? They wouldn't even think of the phone number, because they had send out the email. In a lot of cases, email is a more reliable method of communication.

I'm going to have to think about this between now and February. I'll probably just end up creating an email account for exclusive use, but that's a pain.

Let me say this is the only time I have ever heard of this. If this happened a lot I would think it would be an issue that everyone would know about. As for the ship's rights of what's viewed on their computers, Karen has a good point but they should let you know what the rules are before you pay your $300. I am also sure that the ship's Internet staff could help you out if this occurred. I did not go that far since I had my own laptop and solved the problem myself.

This is an interesting debate but I maintain when I put my money down for a service I expect the service.

Plus any kid reading my e-mail over my shoulder deserves a good ( you know what)

Pam, I feel that email is the least reliable form of communication on a ship. We had had periods of several days with no service on a past cruise.

Chip, just to let you know that Regent does sensor their service but I have never had a problem accessing my spam laden email on the ship. As I said before, I am pretty sure most lines do censor.

Karen, every ship lets you know in advance that sometimes the Internet connection will be down. That just goes back that all radio communication is not always available due to weather or other interference. The point is that if they are going to censor or cut off your e-mail because of content they should publish that disclaimer also.

Chip, I guess it would be best for you to ask before you purchase an internet package on your next cruise.

Our worst internet reception was Alaska, but it was so port intensive that I could intersperse freely with my cell phone. But before the ships became "cell phone towers", I felt that email was the way for the kids to stay in touch. Of course, all of our kids are grown and could handle things until they got in touch with us.

When we went to Turtle Island, Fiji, in 1989, they had nothing on the island except an emergency radio. When the sea plane flew in, it brought any faxes received at their mainland office. Bernard had sent one, then he proceeded to stand over the fax machine (remember, this was when fax machines were fairly new and interesting); the office manager had a good time with "swinging from vine to vine, fax clutched between their teeth", and "tom toms echoing through the jungle". Truth was, the seaplane brought it but departed before any mail was handed out. Mark eventually read the fax, penned his reply, and the seaplane took it back when it flew again. Which wasn't every day.

So, I guess we *could* live without that instant communication we've all become accustomed to, but it's better when we don't have to.

I have a different perspective on this. I am the Business Systems Manager for a large operation in Philadelphia and have personal experience of exactly why companies end up going "overboard" (pardon the pun) to protect themselves.

In the past year, we have twice been sued because individuals were reading inappropriate emails on a company PC. In both cases, someone walking past the desk claimed to have been sexually harassed by reading the emails over the person's shoulder.

Yes, it's stupid. But no matter how meritless the case, you still need to spend good money (and a lot of staff time) to defend against it. So now, we block access to everything that the firewall considers an inappropriate word. Annoying? Absolulely. But that is what things have come to in this crazy litigious society.

I understand your frustration, Chip. But I also understand why a company would make the decision Princess chose.

Kathleen, This is so well put. I, too, understand, Chip's comments and empathize. Chip, thank you for bringing this to my attention.

However, it is great that we can think ahead and manage this situation. The solutions I have gleened from this thread are:
1) Use the old standby and leave contact info
2) Take a cell phone
3) For those of us frequent cruisers, we have free room phone time which can be used.
4) Take our own computer
5) For those of us traveling with a partner, we then have two potential points of contact via email.

Chip, I am all for freedom of speech and it is awful that we have become such a litigious society, that we have to be censored like this. But, this would then become political and not a subject for this board!! Thanks, again, for bringing this to my attention as I had no idea that this could happen.

Although I have been using computers for a number of years, I am not a professional or very knowledgeable about how things work.

I'm not sure I understand why by using your own computer - but accessing the internet though the ship's satellite system - you bypass the firewall.

This is based on what Chip said in his first message.

I know I sat next to a guy in Club.com on the Voyager last year. We were both using our own computers. He had the volume on loud enough to be heard all over the room and was checking out a site with some pretty vulgar language. No censorship here.

No one - including me - said anything. He continued to stay on the site for several minutes. I finally moved.

I realize this is two different issues: the one addressed in the thread and the fact that the guy was rude/inconsiderate.

So I guess the question I have is why are personal computers exempt form censorship even though they are on the same ship system?

Sounds to me??? ...use your cell phone, give the kids (yikes all adults??) ship call info

That's pretty rude listening at high volume to whatever and I think well there's one in every crowd.

The wireless on ships is just a straight Internet connection, (I Think)after you enter your password. I don't think they can or should censor or fool with that. It's like any Internet cafe or hotel. If somebody is going to look at blonds or listen to gangster rap in a public area maybe you should call security. That ain't right.

Andi's right. It's so true that we live in a sue happy society. I bet this is a subject that comes up in cruise line board rooms all the time. How to provide Internet service and not wind up in court over the one idiot out of 500.

I loved taking my laptop on my last cruise. I never had to wait during the heaving usage times. I just went into the lounge and connected. I will do it again.
Lynn

Don't kid yourselves, Regent (and earlier, Radisson) censor not only the computers they own, e.g., in Club.com, but also the feed to the wi-fi on board. I experienced same on the Voyager's recent crossing from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale. They use the same argument as Princess, but extend the censorship into your cabin and your own PC. And it's legal; they own and provide the link, so they can do whatever they want, apparently. Outside the US, they could, for example, block one political party's sites and ads while allowing the other's through. Not sure if that would be legal in the US, and I'm not suggesting they do that, just posing an extreme example.