Scientists have developed a new data smuggling software which they say could allow citizens in countries like China having strict Internet filters to visit any site they want. The software, called Telex, hides data from banned websites inside traffic from sites deemed safe.

It draws on well-known encryption techniques to conceal data making it hard to decipher. So far, Telex is only a prototype but in tests it has been able to defeat Chinese web filters, the researchers said.

"We have tried it from within China bouncing it off computers there. So far, we have had no problems with the censorship there," Dr Alex Halderman, one of developers of Telex, was quoted as saying by the BBC.

The software allowed the team to view banned content such as high definition YouTube videos and sites deemed subversive by the Chinese authorities, he said.

According to Dr Halderman, Telex was developed to get around the problem that stops other anti-censorship technologies being more effective.

Many existing anti-censorship systems involve connecting to a server or network outside the country in which a user lives. This approach relies on spreading information about these servers and networks widely enough that citizens hear about them but not so much that censors can find out and block them.

Telex turns this approach on its head, said Dr Halderman. "Instead of having some server outside the network that's participating we are doing it in the core of the network," he said.