Iranian government officials blacklist forbidden sites that, for instance due to political and religious content, are considered dangerous. The United States International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB, www.ibb.gov) is funding the effort in their partnership with Anonymizer to utilize their core technology.

The way it works is that Anonymizer sends bulk e-mails and daily newsletters to the Iranian citizens addresses that are provided by human rights organizations. The IBB, in support of the Voice Of America Persian Service (VOA, www.voanews.com) and Radio Farda (www.radiofarda.com), are sponsoring the effort to provide this easily accessible service. The generic URLs for the anti-censorship services are publicized over the Radio Farda and VOA Persian broadcasts. The URLs are changed when they become blocked by the Iranian Government, so that Iranian citizens can continue to get unfiltered, unblocked local and world news.

"The links to the service provided within the emails point to either the VOA or Radio Farda sites, but they can go anywhere on the Internet," said Ken Berman, program manager for Internet Anti-censorship activities at the IBB. "Dissident sites, religious sites, the L.L. Bean catalog -- they are free to explore the Internet as they wish, in an unfettered fashion."

"By providing a means for these people to visit the sites that are blocked by their government while remaining anonymous, we're making the Internet a safer place as well as offering the freedoms that they should be afforded," said Lance Cottrell, president and founder of Anonymizer. "This project brings forth the full potential of the Internet bringing free speech and democracy to the world."

For more information and to speak with a company representative about this story, please call Paula Dunne at 408-776-1400 or email at paula@contosdunne.com.

About Anonymizer

Anonymizer, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet privacy and security solutions for individuals, corporations, organizations and government agencies. The company's Web site is home to the world's most popular Internet privacy service, Anonymizer Private Surfing, which defends users from the most prevalent Internet privacy and security threats, from online tracking using "Cookies" to malicious code, identity theft and email spammers. Anonymizer Private Surfing has been used to privacy-protect over four billion Web pages for millions of users since the company's inception in 1996. The company is privately held and headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, please visit www.anonymizer.com .

Anonymizer is a registered trademark of Anonymizer, Inc. All other products or services named herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.