Filtering Companies

 See also:
Blog posts related to filtering companies   
Filtering FAQ            
Filtering Databases    
Test-A-Site Databases

This database of filtering companies – past and present – is under continuing development.  The aim is to make this is database as comprehensive as possible, so please send updates and corrections.

Filtering companies are usually divided into two broad areas: Business (or “enterprise”) and Consumer.  These categories are often subdivided further into Business/Education and Consumer/client and Consumer/ISP.  The Business/Consumer division also usually reflects a technology differentiation as well, since business products are usually server-based and consumer products are usually client-based (run on a single PC).  This technology division is increasingly breaking down, as filtering — like other software, is being offered as a service over the Internet.

It is easier to gauge the relative market presence of business filtering companies because market share is tracked by analyst firms and many of these companies are public and publish revenue numbers.  There is no public research on the market share of consumer filtering products, though large ISPs like MSN and AOL filter many more users than other consumer filters.

For convenience, filtering companies are categorized as follows:

Business – Market Leaders
Business – Emerging Players
Business – Niche Players
Consumer – Large ISP
Consumer – Client PC
Defunct Filters   

 

Company Product Markets Comment
Business – Market Leaders
McAfee SecureWeb Business, education. McAfee acquired Secure Computing in 2008, adding the company’s SecureWeb (formerly SmartFitler) product line.
Websense Websense Business Websense has held the leadership position in business filtering since the late 1990’s. In recent years, Websense’s leadership has increased to 49.5% in 2005, according to Gartner. In 2007, Websense expanded its market share by acquiring the second largest filtering company, SurfControl
Business – Market Followers
Marshal8e6 R3000 Education,Business. 8e6 began in 1995 as LogOn Data Corp with a product named X-Stop for home users and schools.  The company later changed its name and dropped out of the consumer business and successfully refocused on selling aggressively priced filtering appliances to businesses and schools. 
Blue Coat WebFilter Business, education. Blue Coat began in 1996 as Cache Flow, a maker of caching appliances.  Like 8e6, the company renamed itself and refocused on selling security appliances.  In 2004, Blue Coat acquired the filtering vendor Cerberian and rebranded the product WebFilter and sold it with the company’s security appliances. (See also Consumer)
Fortinet FortiGuard Business Fortinet is a privately held security appliance company.  The company produces its own filtering product as a subscription service it sells on top of the FortiGuard appliance
Netsweeper Netsweeper Business, ISPs, Education “Netsweeper was founded in 1999 and is built around a simple yet compelling vision – that Internet users have the right to fully control their experience. With the success of Netsweeper’s products, the company has continued to expand and now boasts world-wide offices and distribution channels.”
St. Bernard iPrism Small & medium businesses St. Bernhard entered the filtering business with the company’s 2001 acquisition of Internet Products.  St. Bernhard focuses on selling filtering appliances to small and medium business.
Trend Micro InterScan Business Trend Micro is a large security company, but filtering appears to be only a small part of their business.  They appear to sell their InterScan filtering as an add-on to existing products.
Business – Niche Players
Aladdin e-Safe Business Middle sized security company selling many different content security products, including filtering.
Amplusnet Cyclope Business A privately owned group of companies operating in the field of development and marketing of software solution and of outsourcing services
Bloxx Bloxx Business, education Bloxx is a newer company based in the U.K.  Bloxx offers a “real-time” filtering solution that’s sold as an appliance to mostly medium-sized companies and schools.
Burstek Bt-Webfilter Business A newer business filtering company, that impressively claims “British Telecom, Lockheed Martin, and JP Morgan” as customers.
Barracuda Networks Web Filter Business Known mostly as an anti-spam appliance company, they have recently broadened into web filtering.
ClearSwift MIME Sweeper Business An established content security provider, resells Surfcontrol’s database in an appliances product.
Content Watch Content Protect Business; consumer Content Watch entered the filtering business in 2001.  The company’s products are filtering appliances and client filtering.  In 2007, Content Watch acquired Net Nanny.
CornerPost Chaperon Education Filtering product sold on the Microsoft ISA platform
Cymphonix Network Composer Business Utah-based start-up that sells URL filtering in a network appliance.
Dan’s Guardian Dan’s Guardian Education Dan’s Guardian is a free, open source filtering product that runs on Linux, and is used largely by schools.
Google Web Security Business “In the cloud” filtering supplied by ScanSafe now being offered for business customers.
Office Efficiencies Safe Squid Business “SafeSquidTM is brought to you by Office Efficiencies (India) Private Limited.  OEIPL, has been in the business of serving a variety of customers.  OEIPL was founded in 1993, in India – an extremely price and value sensitive market for IT.”
Pearl Software Echo Suite Business Pearl Software began in 1996 as a consumer filter/monitoring package, and has now repositioned to the business market
Shalla Secure SquidGuard Education Open source filtering project.  Product is a server that runs on Linux.  Controlling body is based in Germany.
SmoothWall Guardian Business Formed in 2000, SmoothWall is the leading Internet security provider now protecting over a million networks worldwide. SmoothWall Limited offers a suite of firewall, web content filtering and VPN solutions to meet the needs of SME, education and enterprise users.”
URLBlacklist.com URLBlacklist Education For-profit filtering database drawn from a variety of open sources such as Squid Guard and Dan’s Guardian
Consumer – Large ISPs
711.net Filtered ISP Service Consumer Longtime provider of filtered Internet access, particularly for Christian families.
AOL Parental Controls Consumer Provides Parental Controls with ISP service.  Provider of filtering is Rulespace
Microsoft IE, MSN Consumer Provides filtering for both MSN ISP and through Internet Explorer 7.x
Integrity Online Integrity Online Consumer Integrity Online provides filtering in four different categories:       1) Filtered ISP

       2) Downloadable Filter Software

       3) Business Network Filtering

       4) Church Network Filtering

See for background information
PureSight PureSight Consumer “PureSight award-winning content filtering solutions are based on a proprietary Active Content Recognition (ACR) technology. PureSight dynamically analyzes and classifies Internet content in real-time to ensure complete coverage of the constantly changing Internet environment.”
RuleSpace RuleSpace Consumer Important provider of filtering to ISPs, including “AOL, AT&T, BT, Microsoft, RIM, T-Mobile, Verizon and Yahoo!”  Claims 100 million filtered users worldwide.
Consumer – PC
bSafe Internet Filter Consumer Tennessee-based private company that sells both stand-alone home filtering and filtering included in a security suite.
BitDefender Internet Security Consumer “BitDefender®, a division of SOFTWIN, was founded in Bucharest, Romania in 2001. A number one antivirus ranking quickly ensued and sparked heavy demand for its products across Europe and beyond.”
Blue Coat K-9 Consumer Free Internet filtering “in the cloud” client offered to parents, using Blue Coat’s business -grade filtering.
Centipede Networks FilterPak Consumer Founded in 1997, this company has operated under various filtering brands, including Family Connect, FilterPak, and S4F.  They continue to offer filtering services, primarily to families.
Children’s Education Network Ms. America Browser Consumer Free customized browser with built in parental controls, and an extensive whitelist of pre-approved, kid-friendly websites.
CyberSitter CyberSitter Consumer An early and well-known filtering client company.
FilterGate FilterGate Consumer Filtering start up.
GuardWare iShield Consumer Pennsylvania-based client filtering provider.
Internet Safety Safe Eyes Consumer Privately held Georgia-based company.
Pandora PC Pandora Consumer Privately held American company that provides client-based filtering and monitoring for the PC.
Phantom Technologies iBoss Consumer Phantom Technologies is a privately held company with international headquarters based out of San Diego, CA. Products and services provided include residential Parental Control products and Internet Content Filtering for small business.
Security Software Cyber Sentinel Consumer Illinois-based security software company, sells client product to families. 
Symantec Norton Internet Consumer Very large security vendors, sells filtering as part of a comprehensive security package for families.
Total Tech Livia Web Protection Consumer “Founded in 2004, Total Tech is a provider of innovative Internet security solutions for the business and consumer markets.  The company provides proactive critical network and Internet security solutions that complement and support traditional security measures.”
Turner & Sons Internet Filter Consumer Canadian filtering company that publishes an open-source filtering list.
Defunct Filters
Filter
(Link points to archive site)		 Market Year Ended Reason for Demise
(Link points to background information)
Cerberian Education, business 2004 Acquired by Blue Coat Systems Inc. for $17.5 million in Blue Coat stock.
CyberGuard Business 2006 Acquired by Secure Computing in 2006.  Webwasher product (acquired by CyberGuard in 2004) is still sold by Secure Computing.
Dot Safe Education 2001 “The board of directors elected to cease operations in the middle of March, rather than put any more money into the organization.”
Elron Web Inspector Business 2003 Acquired by Zix corporation in 2003.
Family Click Consumer ISP 2003 Since early 2003, Family click has had a message on their website stating, “FamilyCLICK has ceased operating its filtering service until further notice.”
Family Connect Consumer 2002 Merged into Centipede networks in 2002
Internet Products Business, education 2001 Acquired by St. Bernard software in 2001. The iPrism product is still sold by St. Bernard.
Internet Safari Consumer, education 2002 Heartsoft, an education software company manufactured this safe browser until discontinuing it sometime in 2002.
Little Brother Business 2000 A business filter made by the Kansman Corp., and acquired by Surfcontrol in 2000
N2h2 Education 2003 Acquired in by Secure Computing for $20 million in 2003.
Net Nanny Consumer 2004 Acquired by LookSmart in 2004.  The Net Nanny brand was then acquired from LookSmart by Content Protect in 2007.
Net Shepherd Consumer; education 2001 Ceased operations in 2001
Secure Computing SmartFilter Business, education. Secure was acquired by McAfee in 2008.
Surfcontrol Web Filter Business, education, consumer. SurfControl at one time had the market lead in filtering after acquiring such filtering products as Cyber Patrol and SurfWatch. SurfControl is unique among large filtering companies in that it sells to home users.   SurfControl fell behind arch-rival Websense in recent years, and in 2007 was acquired by Websense.
Surf Watch Consumer 1999 Sold to SurfControl for $29 million in 1999. Product discontinued in 2000.
This.com Education; Consumer 2002 Offered free filtering to schools in 2000.  Appears to have ceased operation sometime in 2002.
URLabs Business 1999 Acquired by Symantec in 1999.
Webster Business 1996 Acquired by Secure Computing in 1996 for $3 million.
WebWasher Business 2004 Acquired by CyberGuard in 2004 for $40 million.  CyberGuard was in turn acquired by Secure Computing in 2006, who still sells WebWasher.
Zix (company still in business) Business 2005 Web Inspector (which Zix had acquired from Elron in 2003) acquired by CyberGuard for $4 million in 2005.

 

© 2007, David Burt & Filtering Facts