OpenDNS Touts Controversial Antiphishing Service
Simple spelling mistakes will be corrected—for instance, sending craigslist.og to craigslist.org. Some industry observers noted that this feature could become controversial if it catches on, since it imposes a kind of censorship on the DNS.
"OpenDNS will have the power to censor domains or classes of domains. ... A typosquatter somewhere surely will make that assertion," wrote Mark Jeftovic, cofounder of easyDNS Technologies, in a post on CircleID, a community site focused on Internet infrastructure.
The feature could also create a conflict of interest, since typo corrections theoretically steer traffic away from the revenue-generating error page.
One obvious limitation could be geography. OpenDNS currently has servers on the United States’ east and west coasts, and is planning locations in Chicago and London. In other locations, requests may have to traverse the globe for a response, which could negate any speed boost provided by OpenDNS’ fast network and large cache.
-Matthew Broersma, Techworld.com (London)
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