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Microsoft Blocks FSF Donation Website as a 'Gambling Site'

In a latest post on Free Software Foundation website, John Sullivan slammed Microsoft for blocking donate.fsf.org website by labeling it as a 'Gambling Website' in their databases.

Corporate systems that use a Microsoft "network security" program cannot access FSF donation website because of this and as a result, many people were unable to make donations.

This is the response when connecting to donate.fsf.org while using Microsoft's security program:

The page you are trying to browse to is categorized as "Gambling"

This can be verified by a entering donate.fsf.org on Microsoft's url look-up page here.

FSF has submitted a correction to Microsoft and they are now waiting for a response. John also warned corporate about Microsoft's proprietary network security programs:

We strongly suggest you avoid using proprietary "network security" software from Microsoft. If you need to provide evidence to someone else to illustrate why using such software is a bad idea, feel free to use us as an example. If your workplace uses the software currently, please point to this post and ask them to drop it. Proprietary security software is an oxymoron -- if the user is not fundamentally in control of the software, the user has no security.

If Microsoft's "reputation" database can't tell the difference between a gambling site and an independently audited registered nonprofit public-interest charity founded almost 30 years ago, it is certainly doing you and your business more harm than good.

Update: The security program is Microsoft Threat Management Gateway. More info here.

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