TrustedSource Web Database
Internet access is managed and monitored through the powerful combination of both reputation- and category-based filtering. The TrustedSource Web Database is the repository for all of the global Internet data gathered by Secure Computing. Reputation scores and category placement are determined from this rich data source. The TrustedSource Web Database for category-based filtering provides a proven repository of over 25 million blockable Web sites in over 90 categories. These categories include sites that organizations may want to control access to such as liability, security, productivity, and bandwidth-intensive sites. The TrustedSource Web Database also provides numerous categories that organizations typically don't block but often report on to better understand their Web traffic and include sites such as business and reference.
Learn more about the TrustedSource Web Database:
Consistently ranked most accurate filtering
Independent studies have consistently named Secure Computing as having the most accurate database with top rankings in various reports.
Why is database quality so important?
A filtering database of lesser quality may still block plenty of sites, but it will also either let more inappropriate content through, block appropriate content, or both. The result of using a less-effective filtering product is more requests for help from users, and worse, more access allowed to offensive and possibly dangerous content.
How the best database in the industry is built and maintained
Secure Computing relies on a combination of advanced technology and highly skilled Web analysts - the ideal combination for high accuracy and coverage. Secure Computing utilizes a number of technologies and artificial intelligence techniques to gather and rate potential Web sites including: link crawlers, security forensics, honeypot networks, sophisticated auto-rating tools and customer logs. Candidate sites are added to the database after being reviewed by our multi-lingual Web Analysts who focus their full attention on ensuring the continued quality of the database.
Web Analysts bring a wealth of experience
Our Web analyst team brings a wealth of technical expertise and cultural diversity that's unmatched in the industry. Our SmartFilter database contains URLs from 66 different countries where unique languages are spoken. Large numbers of URLs are in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
Outstanding customer service
Have a question on how a site is categorized? Customers can either use the online URL checker found on TrustedSource to determine how a site is categorized or communicate directly with the Web Analyst team. Customers can file tickets to track their URL request and receive detailed reports on how URLs in question are categorized.
Real-time updates and feedback
Updates to the TrustedSource Web Database are now available in real-time, helping you keep up with the changing nature of Internet content and stay ahead of emerging Web threats. Secure Web SmartFilter also offers real-time automated feedback that sends uncategorized URLs to the TrustedSource network for review.
SmartFilter XL database categories and definitions (compatible with SmartFilter 4.2 and later):
Alcohol (al)
A Web page that has a significant focus on selling, promoting, or advocating the use of alcohol. Alcohol includes beer, wine, and hard liquors.
This category also includes cocktail recipes and home brewing instructions.
Anonymizers (an)
Web pages that purposefully allow users to browse the Web by hiding their IP address, or other personal identification information, in order to bypass local filtering policies and access any Web page. Anonymizer Web pages will also block any tracking technologies, such as cookies or browser history. Some methods also prevent OS version and Web page history from being forwarded to the Web page.
Pages that provide free proxy IP addresses or detail how to bypass filtering are included in this
category.
Web pages that do not intend to hide a user are not included in this category; see "Anonymizing
Utilities" (au).
Anonymizing Utilities (au)
Web pages that result in anonymous Web browsing without the explicit intent to provide such a
service. This category includes URL translators, Web page caching, or other utilities that may
function as anonymizers, but without the express purpose of bypassing filtering software.
URL translation and text translation are different: Text translation requires a user to enter a word,
phrase, or block of text into an input field for translation, not a URL. Text translation is
categorized as Text Translators.
Art/Culture/Heritage (ac)
Web pages that contain virtual art galleries, artist sites (including sculpture and photography),
museums, ethnic customs, and country customs. Online photo albums are not included; see "Media Sharing" (md).
Auctions/Classifieds (eb)
Web pages providing online bidding and selling of items or services.
Web pages in this category focus on bidding and sales; therefore, they do not cover classified
ads such as real estate postings, personals, or companies marketing their auctions.
Blogs/Wiki (bl)
Web pages containing dynamic content ? content that changes frequently because users are
allowed to post or edit content at any time. This category is designed to cover the risks
associated with dynamic content that may range from harmless to offensive.
Business (bu)
Web pages that provide business-related information, such as corporate overviews or business
planning and strategies.
Also included is information, services, or products that help other businesses plan, manage, and
market their enterprises. Multi-level marketing ventures are included when the focus is on
running the business.
Personal pages and Web hosting Web pages are not included.
Chat (ch)
Web pages that provide Web-based, real-time social messaging in public and private chat
rooms.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is included in this category. While instant messaging has some of the same risks, it includes additional risks and is not Webbased,
see "Instant Messaging" (im) for additional information.
Content Server (is)
URLs for servers that host images, media files, or JavaScript for one or more sites and are
intended to speed up content retrieval for existing Web servers, such as Apache. Content
servers generally do not have content posted or through-site navigation for Web surfers.
Content servers hosting images do not allow users to browse the photos. This category includes domain-level and sub-domain-level URLs that function as content servers.
The following are not included in this category: Web pages for businesses that provide the
content servers; Web pages that allow users to browse photos (see "Media Sharing" (md)); URLs for ad servers serving only ads (see "Web Ads" (wa)).
Criminal Activities (cs)
Web pages that provide instructions to commit illegal or criminal activities. Instructions include
committing murder or suicide, sabotage, bomb-making, lock-picking, service theft, evading law
enforcement, or spoofing drug tests.
Information on how to distribute illegal content, perpetrate fraud, or consumer scams may be
also included.
Computer-related fraud is not included in this category; see "Hacking/Computer Crime" (hk).
Dating/Personals (dp)*
This category includes Web pages that provide networking for online dating, matchmaking,
escort services, or introductions to potential spouses. These sites provide personal or group
profiles and facilitate interaction among their members through real-time communication,
message posting, public bulletins, and media sharing.
Sites that provide social networking that may include dating, but are not specific to dating, are
covered under Social Networking.
Dating/Social Networking (mm)**
This category includes URLs that focus on social interaction such as online dating, friendship,
school reunions, pen-pals, escort services, or introductions to potential spouses. Many of these
sites facilitate social interaction among their members through real-time message posting.
This category does not include wedding-related content, dating tips, or related marketing.
Digital Postcards (dc)
Web pages that allow people to send and receive digital postcards and greeting cards via the
Internet. Digital postcards feature messages of greeting or sentiment, usually for special
occasions such as birthdays or other holidays.
Drugs (dr)
Sites in this category provide information on the purchase, manufacture, and use of illegal or
recreational drugs. This includes displaying, selling, or detailing the use of drug paraphernalia,
as well as tips on legal highs, such as glue sniffing, the misuse of prescription drugs, or the
abuse of other legal substances.
This category is not used for sites with exclusive health or political themes.
Education/Reference (ed)
Web pages devoted to academic-related content such as academic subjects (math, history),
school or university Web pages, as well as education administration pages (school boards,
teacher curriculum).
Entertainment (et)
Web pages that provide information about cinema, theater, music, television, infotainment,
entertainment industry gossip-news, and sites about celebrities such as actors and musicians.
This also includes sites where the content is devoted to providing entertainment on the Web,
such as horoscopes or fan clubs.
Extreme (ex)
Web pages providing content considered gory, perverse, or horrific in nature.
Fashion/Beauty (fb)
Web pages that market clothing, cosmetics, jewelry, and other fashion oriented products, accessories, or services. This also includes product reviews, comparisons, and general consumer information, as well as services such as hair salons, tanning salons, tattoo studios, and body piercing studios. This category does not include fashion-related content such as modeling or celebrity fashion unless there is a focus on marketing the product line.
Finance/Banking (fi)
Web pages that provide financial information or access to online financial accounts.
- Web pages that provide financial information include news or services that deal with the management of money, but do not provide access to sensitive financial account information, such as financial statistics, or consultation in areas such as taxes, mortgage, insurance, accreditation, or investment.
- Access to online financial accounts include personal or business related banking, money management, tax consulting, mutual funds, credit cards, credit unions, insurance, other financial publications and services.
For Kids (fk)
Family-safe Web pages that are designed specifically for children (approximate ages ten and under).
Forum/Bulletin Boards (mb)
Web pages that hold discussions and post user-generated content, such as real-time message
posting for a particular interest group. This excludes message forums with a business or technical support focus (see Technical/Business Forums (tf)).
Gambling (gb)
Web pages that allow users to wager or place bets online or provide gambling software that
allows online betting; for example, casino games, betting pools, sports betting, and lotteries.
This category includes lotteries if you can buy the tickets or play online.
Web pages related to gambling that do not allow betting online are not included: see "Gambling
Related" (gr).
Gambling Related (gr)
Web pages that offer information relevant to gambling, without providing the means to do so.
Examples include gambling links, tips, sports picks, lottery results, as well as horse, car, or boat
racing.
Casino-related Web pages will fall under this site if they do not offer online gambling.
Game/Cartoon Violence (cv)
Web pages providing fantasy or fictitious representations of violence within the context of games, comics, cartoons, or graphic novels. This includes images and textual descriptions of physical assaults or hand-to-hand combat, as well as grave injury and destruction caused by
weapons or explosives.
Games (gm)
Web pages that offer online games and related information such as cheats, codes, demos,
emulators, online contests or role-playing games, gaming clans, game manufacturer sites,
fantasy or virtual sports leagues, and other gaming sites without chances of profit. Gaming
consoles, such as X-Box and PlayStation, are included in this category.
General News (nw)
Web pages that provide online news media, such as international or regional news broadcasting
and publication.
Portal sites that provide news content are covered under this category.
Government/Military (gv)
Web pages that contain content maintained by governmental or military organizations, such as
government branches or agencies, police departments, fire departments, civil defense,
counterterrorism organizations, or supranational organizations, such as the United Nations or
the European Union.
Military and veterans medical facilities are included in this category.
Gruesome Content(tg)
Web pages with content that can be considered tasteless, gross, shocking, or gruesome. Some
examples include tasteless humor, bodily excretory functions, graphic medical or accident scene
photos (containing blood or wounds), extreme forms of body modification (cutting, branding, or
genital piercing), or shocking depictions of inhumane animal treatment.
This category does not contain Web pages with content pertaining to physical assault; see
"Violence" (vi).
Hacking/Computer Crime (hk)
Web pages that provide "how-to" directions, or otherwise enable, fraud, crime, or malicious
activity that is computer oriented. Web pages related to computer crime include malicious
hacking information or tools that help individuals gain unauthorized access to computers and
networks (root kits, kiddy scripts).
Also included are other areas of electronic fraud such as dialer scams and illegal manipulation of
electronic devices.
Illegal software does not fall under this category; see "Illegal Software" (il).
Hate/Discrimination (hs)
Web pages that provide information that would encourage the oppression of a specific group of
individuals. This includes promoting, explicitly or implicitly, an agenda against groups based on
race, religion, nationality, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation. Political parties with a
specific hate-based agenda may be included.
If involving jokes or humor, the focus of the entire site must be considered hateful or
discriminatory to fall under this category.
Health (hl)
This category is intended to cover all health related information and health care services. Health
information includes topics designed to improve an individual's well-being, whether it be physical
or mental health (diet, nutrition, fitness, or parenting). Health care services include health care
providers such as health insurance, hospitals, clinics, and independent physicians.
This category does not include cosmetic surgery, marketing/selling pharmaceuticals, or animalrelated
medical services.
Historical Revisionism (hr)
Content that denounces or offers different interpretations of significant historical facts, such as
holocaust denial. Some sites in this category may have a legitimate academic value, however
many of these sites include illegitimate manipulation of history for political purposes.
This category is not intended to include all reexamination of historical facts, but is limited to
historical events that are highly sensitive.
History (hi)
Web pages providing content about historical facts.
This category is designed for content suitable for higher education, while the Education category
is designed for primary education. For example, a site with Holocaust photos may be offensive,
yet have academic value.
Humor/Comics (hm)
Web pages providing content intended to be comical or funny. These sites include jokes,
sketches, comics, and satire pages.
This category may also apply to graphic novel content, which is often associated with comics.
Illegal Software (il)
Web pages that offer information to pirate or illegally distribute software or electronic media,
such as copyrighted music or film, distribution of illegal license key generators, software cracks,
and serial numbers.
Peer-to-Peer Web pages are not included in this category; see "P2P/File Sharing" (pn).
Incidental Nudity (mn)
Web pages that contain non-pornographic images of the bare human body like those found in
classic sculpture and paintings, or medical images.
This category is designed for use as a selective blocking category to allow or block sites in order
to address cultural or geographic differences in opinion about nudity. For example, use this
category when you want to block access to nudity, but allow access when it is not the primary
focus of a site, such as news sites or major portals.
Information Security (io)
Web pages that have a legitimate purpose to provide information about data protection. This applies to detailed information intended to safeguard business or personal data, intellectual property, privacy, and infrastructure on the Internet, private networks, or in other bandwidth services such as telecommunications. The following are not included:
- Legitimate information security companies and security software providers, such as virus protection companies.
- Sites that have an express purpose in exploiting security or teaching how to bypass security; see "Hacking/Computer Crime" (hk).
Instant Messaging (im)
Web pages that provide software for real-time communication over a network exclusively for
users who have been invited to join a member's contact list or an instant messaging session.
Most instant messaging software includes features such as file transfer, PC-to-PC phone calls,
and tracking of when other people log on and off.
Interactive Web Applications (ia)
Web pages that provide access to live or interactive Web applications, such as browser-based
office suites and groupware. Sites categorized as Interactive Web Applications include those
with business, academic, or individual focus.
Sites providing access to interactive Web applications that do not take critical user data or offer
security risks are excluded, such as Google Maps.
Sites that focus primarily on Web meetings for business use are categorized as
Web Meetings.
Internet Radio/TV (ir)
Web pages that provide software or access to continuous audio or video broadcasting, such as
Internet radio, TV programming, or podcasting.
Quick downloads and shorter streams that present less bandwidth compromise fall under
Streaming Media or Media Downloads.
Internet Services (it)
Web pages that provide services for publication and maintenance of Internet sites such as Web
design, domain registration, Internet Service Providers, and broadband and telecommunications
companies that provide Web services.
Web utilities such as statistics and access logs are included, as well as Web graphics like clip
art.
Job Search (js)
Web pages related to a job search including sites concerned with resume writing, interviewing,
changing careers, classified advertising, and large job databases. It also includes corporate
Web pages listing job openings, salary comparison sites, temporary employment, company job
posting sites.
Make money at home sites fall under the Business or Online Shopping categories.
Malicious Sites (ms)
Web pages that deploy code designed specifically to hijack your computer?s settings or activity.
Some examples include self-installing applications (called "drive-by" executable file downloads),
Trojans, and viruses that exploit security vulnerabilities in browsers or other applications. It is
possible for a Web page to lose its malicious status and be recategorized.
This category is differentiated from the Spyware/Adware category by its intent. Spyware/Adware
is intended to covertly gather and send information to another party; malicious sites intend to
take action on another computer to cause damage.
Marketing/Merchandising (mk)
Web pages that provide individual or business promotion of products or services on the Web, but do not sell their products or services online. These sites generally serve as a company overview with descriptions of the services or products in which they specialize, but cannot be purchased directly from Marketing/Merchandising sites. Examples include, but are not limited to, wedding photography services, automobile manufacturer sites, or graphic design services.
The following are not included:
- Other categories that imply marketing are Alcohol, Auctions/Classifieds, Drugs, Finance/Banking, Mobile Phone, Online Shopping, Real Estate, School Cheating Information, Software/Hardware, Stock Trading, Tobacco, Travel, and Weapons.
- Sites with sole intent to market their services to other businesses; see "Business" (bu).
Media Downloads (mp)
Web pages that provide audio or video files for download such as MP3, WAV, AVI, and MPEG
formats. The files are saved to and played from the user?s computer.
Audio or video files that are played directly through a browser window are not included in this
category; see "Streaming Media" (st).
Media Sharing (md)
Web pages that allow users to upload, search for, and share media files and photos, such as
online photo albums.
Messaging (mg)
Web pages that provide streaming messaging services such as computer to mobile phone
text-messaging via SMS (Short Message Service) or MMS (Multimedia Message Service) or
computer to fax machine messaging.
Mobile Phone (mo)
Web pages that provide buyable media, software, or utilities for mobile phones that can be
downloaded and delivered to mobile phones. Examples include ringtones, logos/skins, games,
screen-savers, text-based tunes, and software for SMS (Short Message Service), MMS
(Multimedia Message Service), WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and other mobile phone
protocols.
Moderated (mr)
Bulletin boards, chat rooms, search engines, or Web mail sites that are monitored by an
individual or group who has the authority to block messages or content considered
inappropriate. This category may be used as an exception to allow access to Web pages
categorized as Moderated.
Sites with posted rules against offensive content do not fall under the Moderated category; see
"Forum/Bulletin Boards" (mb).
Motor Vehicles (mv)*
This category includes sites for manufacturers and dealerships of consumer transportation
vehicles, such as cars, vans, trucks, SUVs, motorcycles, and scooters. This also includes sites
that provide product marketing, reviews, comparisons, pricing information, auto fairs, auto
expos, and general consumer information about motor vehicles.
Automotive accessories, mechanics, auto-body shops, and recreational hobby pages are not
included. Sites that provide business-to-business-only content regarding motor vehicles are not
included.
Non-Profit/Advocacy/NGO (np)
Web pages for groups designed for charitable or educational purposes that fulfill a stated
mission, benefiting the larger community, such as clubs, lobbies, communities, non-profit
organizations, labor unions, and advocacy groups. Examples are Masons, Elks, Boy and Girl
Scouts, or Big Brothers.
Organizations with governmental endorsements, but not government run, will fall under this
category.
Nudity (nd)
Web pages that have non-pornographic images of the bare human body.
Classic sculpture and paintings, artistic nude photographs, some naturism pictures, and detailed
medical illustrations are included in the Nudity category. High-profile sites where nudity is not a
concern for visitors do not fall under this category; see "Incidental Nudity" (mn).
Online Shopping (os)
Web pages that specifically sell products or services online. Web pages that sell only one
product are not included in Online Shopping ? those Web pages will be categorized according
to the topic of their exclusive content. For example, a site selling only weapons would be
categorized under Weapons. A site selling weapons with a broad range of other items will be
categorized as Online Shopping.
P2P/File Sharing (pn)
Web pages that allow the exchange of files between computers and users for business or
personal use, such as downloadable music. P2P clients allow users to search for and exchange
files from a peer-user network. They often include spyware or real-time chat capabilities.
BitTorrent Web pages are included under this category.
Parked Domain (pd)
Web pages that once served content, but their domains have been sold or abandoned and are
no longer registered. Parked domains do not host their own content, but usually redirect users to
a generic page that states the domain name is for sale or redirect users to a generic search
engine and portal page, some of which provide valid search engine results.
Personal Network Storage (ns)
Web pages that allow users to upload folders and files to an online network server in order to
backup, share, edit, or retrieve files or folders from any Web browser.
Personal Pages (pp)
Personal home pages that share a common domain such as those hosted by ISPs, university/
education servers, or free Web page hosts. Also included are unique domains that contain
personal information, such as a personal home page.
Home pages of public figures are not rated as Personal Pages, they will fall under their related
category such as Entertainment or Sports. However, these pages are not highly trafficked
making them difficult to categorize and provide coverage for each personal page.
Pharmacy (pm)
Web pages that provide reviews, descriptions, and market or sell prescription based drugs,
over-the-counter drugs, birth control, or dietary supplements.
Phishing (ph)
Links to Web pages that typically arrive in hoax e-mails established to steal user account
information. These sites falsely represent themselves and appear as legitimate company Web
pages in order to deceive and obtain user account information that can be used to perpetrate
fraud or theft.
Politics/Opinion (po)
Web pages covering political parties, individuals in political life, and opinion on various topics.
This category may also cover laws and political opinion about drugs.
Pornography (sx)
Web pages that contain materials intended to be sexually arousing or erotic. This includes fetish
pages, animation, cartoons, stories, and illegal pornography.
Portal Sites (ps)
Web pages designed as a starting point that serve as major gateways or directories to content
on the Web. Many portal sites also provide a variety of internal site features or services such as
search engines, e-mail, news, and entertainment.
Mailing list sites with a variety of content are included in the Portal Sites category.
Sites with topic-specific content are not included in this category. Such sites are categorized
more specifically, such as Entertainment.
Profanity (pr)
Web page that contain crude, vulgar, or obscene language or gestures.
Professional Networking (nt)*
This category includes Web pages that provide social networking exclusively for professional or
business related purposes. These sites provide personal or group profiles and facilitate
interaction among their members through real-time communication, message posting, public
bulletins, and media sharing.
This category will also contain alumni sites that have a networking function.
This category does not include social networking sites where the focus may vary, but include
friendship, dating, or professional focuses. See "Social Networking" (sn) or "Dating/Personals" (dp).