Alternative terms to "Blacklist" and "Whitelist"

Solution 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.

Solution 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.

Solution 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.

Solution 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).

Solution 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}