Alternative terms to "Blacklist" and "Whitelist"

Question

My company is developing a management tool for managing SIM cards. One of the features of the tool is to block the SIM card if it's put into a disallowed device by device IMEI validation.

The feature for this was mocked up using the terms blacklist and whitelist. However, after a while someone raised the point that these terms could feel a bit controversial.

The advantage of using these terms is that they are clean and easily understandable, but then again if they could invoke any racial issues we don't want anything to do with them.

So far we've come up with these possible alternatives:

• Blocked List
• Unblocked List
• Allowed List

And honestly, we're not very excited for any of these words.

Are blacklist and whitelist controversial? Are there better words we could use?

Answer 1

Blacklist and whitelist are fine, I don't think they are in any way racist, unless you're actually using them for discrimination.

Wikipedia's IMEI entry repeatedly uses blacklist for blocking stolen phones.

Many mobile operators, such as Vodaphone, O2, T-Mobile and Orange, all use blacklist for exactly the same thing as your use.

Whitelist is also widely used by many other applications for adding known, safe things.

If you really, really must avoid these industry standard words, blocklist has the same meaning and is nearly a homonym. For the antonym, I've seen "safe senders list" for email, so I suggest safelist to succintly convey the required meaning.

Answer 2

'Whitelist' and 'blacklist', though they are very common usage, can sound somewhat strange nowadays because of, whatever the provenance, their connections with racially tinged words.

An alternative, which is based on current technology but not yet widespread is:

• allow list
• deny list

'Allow' and 'deny' are the labels used for some kinds security specification.

Answer 3

I'm almost a decade late to the party, but I tend to use different terms depending on the context.

When appropriate, I use:

• Exclude List
• Allow List

In other contexts, I use:

• Block List
• Allow List

Sometimes, I find it appropriate to use:

• Reject List
• Permit List

Or, in specific contexts, I use:

• Minus List
• Plus List

And in some other contexts, I use:

• Exclusions
• Inclusions

It's usually obvious which is the best fit for the context.

Answer 4

Blocklist is a well known synonym for blacklist. For example, the Wikipedia article on blacklists can be looked up under blocklist. A major spam tracker, Spamhaus, uses the term.

As for whitelist, it's pretty much universal. That's the term Spamhaus uses, and there are no Wikipedia redirects from other terms (other than alternate spellings).

Answer 5

I would normally assume the words blacklist and whitelist are so pervasive as to be practically inoffensive*. However, it may still be wise to avoid them, so I would suggest something like:

Safelist

As in 'the device is safe to be used with that SIM'. As recommended by MetaEd's answer, a good antonym is Blocklist.

_{But I say this, coming from a white background, so YMMV considerably}

Answer 6

UK NCSC to stop using 'whitelist' and 'blacklist' due to racial stereotyping.

The UK cyber-security agency to use "allow list" and "deny list" going forward.

From the article:

"However, there's an issue with the terminology. It only makes sense if you equate white with 'good, permitted, safe' and black with 'bad, dangerous, forbidden'. There are some obvious problems with this," she added.

and

The issue was also a talking point inside Chromium, the open-source browser engine at the base of Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Brave, and many other modern-day web browsers. Microsoft engineers asked, and Google engineers agreed to stop using the whitelist and blacklist terms.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-ncsc-to-stop-using-whitelist-and-blacklist-due-to-racial-stereotyping/

Answer 7

There are already numerous good suggestions, but because some possibilities like green-list and stop-list haven't been mentioned, I decided to list several additional possible pairs:

• pass/stop
• go/stop
• go/no
• pro/con
• yes/no
• green/red
• we/de
• good/bad

For example, “go/no” represents the pair of names, “go-list” and “no-list” (or “go list” and “no list” if you prefer to leave out the hyphens). Some pairs are better with hyphens, and some without.

Answer 8

Why not stretch the well-known (at least in technology) acronym ACL? While the term commonly applies to controlling access for users and networking devices, there's no good reason it couldn't be used to describe other kinds of access control. Then the individual files that make up the ACL can be referred to as the include ACL and the exclude ACL.

Answer 9

I wouldn't consider Black List or White List to be controversial because they are both widely acceptable phrases and are not derived from a racial context.

However, if you absolutely must play it safe, you could use the following pairs.

'Accepted' <-> 'Rejected'
'Go' <-> 'No Go'
'Yea' <-> 'Nay'

Answer 10

Perhaps open vs closed list.

A definition can be closed or open.

• A number is a thing that can participate in arithmetic.
• A number is an integer, complex, or real.

The first is open because we might discover new instances like octonions or surreals. The second is closed because, though infinite, it won't expand as our knowledge expands.

This can also apply to lists used for security decisions.

Maybe we need to define "cat" so we can limit access via a cat door. We could come up with open and closed definitions:

• A cat is a quadruped with fur, whiskers, and retractable claws.
• A cat is a member or descendent of a prehistoric population of proto-cats.

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The first definition is open. We might discover a new planet with aliens that have four legs, fur, whiskers, and retractable claws which would then fit our definition.

If we build a cat-door based on the first definition, we grant access to undiscovered space cats before we know whether any have laser eyes.

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The second is closed. Space cats would not meet this definition.

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This distinction gets at why we care about "blacklist" vs "whitelist."

Closed lists are easier to reason about, so if we build a cat-door based on the second definition, we are not granting access to space invaders, and we can investigate how much work an evil genius would need to augment Earth cats with laser eyes.

Answer 11

I personally say redlist and greenlist, using the traffic light metaphor. Although the terms "blacklist" and "whitelist" are not derived from a racial context, "redlist" and "greenlist" have a lower risk of being misinterpreted in such a way.