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Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

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Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#51

Post by CWIZO »

googlebot6178 wrote: post #32

Since Google eliminated country specific search sites like google.co.uk and bans you from changing location you have to get VPN. If you happen to be travelling and want to do Xmas shopping for UK Google now blocks this possibility because it assumes you want to shop for delivery at your airport transfer lounge location because it doesn't understand user intent or helpful content, in its own bubble land it unbelievabl…

I love how google (youtube) starts immediately showing me ads in the language of whatever country I happen to be on holiday at the time. For that country specific services/products. As if they don't know exactly where I'm from and which languages I speak. Absolutely baffling that they get this so badly wrong.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#52

Post by cedws »

gorgoiler wrote: post #35
_dan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean good luck banning ssh connections.

You’ll need to have some plausible amount of non-ssh traffic otherwise your account will be automatically re-assigned as an Enterprise Infrastructure Account . It will be temporarily suspended while you apply for a license. EIAs are £452.17/month (a statutory amount originally defined in The Online Safety Act’s 2027 update, subject to triple-lock inflation), licensed, and subject to inspection. There’s a four month w…

You forgot about the Internet Tunnelling Tax.

* does not apply to pensioners

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#53

Post by salawat »

kneel25 wrote: post #43
latexr wrote: post #12

> How many other people have done the same? For your own personal sake, you may be selfishly wishing it’s as few people as possible. Eventually they’ll outlaw VPNs too and by then you’ll have little recourse. You can’t hide behind them forever, deeper change is needed.

I don't know why people immediately have this thought, outlawing VPNs achieves virtually nothing in the UK. An adult bypassing an age check is irrelevant; underage users are at least mature enough to know what a VPN is - not the main target of the act. And there's virtually no real anonymity; hiding from your ISP doesn't make you untraceable. So why would they even consider it?

For the children of course. Haven't you been around for this before?

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#54

Post by latexr »

kneel25 wrote: post #43
latexr wrote: post #12

> How many other people have done the same? For your own personal sake, you may be selfishly wishing it’s as few people as possible. Eventually they’ll outlaw VPNs too and by then you’ll have little recourse. You can’t hide behind them forever, deeper change is needed.

I don't know why people immediately have this thought, outlawing VPNs achieves virtually nothing in the UK. An adult bypassing an age check is irrelevant; underage users are at least mature enough to know what a VPN is - not the main target of the act. And there's virtually no real anonymity; hiding from your ISP doesn't make you untraceable. So why would they even consider it?

It’s naive to believe the goal of these laws is truly to protect children and that it has anything to do with age. That’s just the justification which gets them in the door.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#55

Post by latexr »

_dan wrote: post #31
latexr wrote: post #12

> How many other people have done the same? For your own personal sake, you may be selfishly wishing it’s as few people as possible. Eventually they’ll outlaw VPNs too and by then you’ll have little recourse. You can’t hide behind them forever, deeper change is needed.

I mean good luck banning ssh connections.

Good luck having the general public using SSH connections to route their traffic. You’re not a hermit (or you wouldn’t be on HN). You live in a society and what affects your peers and their behaviours also influences your life.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#56

Post by _dan »

gorgoiler wrote: post #35
_dan wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean good luck banning ssh connections.

You’ll need to have some plausible amount of non-ssh traffic otherwise your account will be automatically re-assigned as an Enterprise Infrastructure Account . It will be temporarily suspended while you apply for a license. EIAs are £452.17/month (a statutory amount originally defined in The Online Safety Act’s 2027 update, subject to triple-lock inflation), licensed, and subject to inspection. There’s a four month w…

Well that is ridiculous.

..but sadly within the margin of ridiculousness for our government's approach to the internet.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#57

Post by iLoveOncall »

nomilk wrote: post #39

I got a VPN in preparation for Australia's (even more draconian) "age verification" laws (those take effect in 4 days). But what I'd really love (startup idea!?) is an app that let's you map websites to countries and it handles tunnelling that domain's traffic through the selected country's VPN. For example, I'd like to view Reddit, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram and social media apps from a US IP (to avoid Australi…

Check out this fully self-hosted solution that was posted on HN recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46081188

After the article I set it up myself, it took me around a day I would say. It supports exactly what you're asking for, although it's not a comprehensive tutorial so you'll need to figure some things out on your own.

Full disclosure I ended up turning it off only 2 days later because it was causing too many issues with networking and I suck at networking-related things, but it was great while it was working. I plan on setting it up again in the near future.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#59

Post by salawat »

breppp wrote: post #34
constantcrying wrote: post #22

So much of the Internet is broken if you don't have a VPN (and much of it is broken if you do). But the consequence of circumventing laws through VPNs will inevitably be bans on VPNs for individuals. By the way, the people who are writing these laws aren't clueless 60 year olds who need help operating their phones. The EU politicians pushing through chat control understand what they are doing. The idea of a global in…

laws are not the issue as much as foreign totalitarian entities have a strong ability to influence local voters in adverse ways. This is such a threat to democracy that ironically the only solution is to crack down on democracy

Not a big fan of Managed Democracy, thank you.

Re: Ask HN: How many people got VPNs in response to laws like UK Online Safety Act?

#60

Post by notsatan »

grumblepeet wrote: post #2

I did despite being quite resistant to the idea at first. Eventually I didn't have a choice, as many things I wanted to read were suddenly hidden. I am paranoid however and worry that the VPN maker is tracking me, but there is only so much I can be paranoid about in the day.

Why not get a remote server and tunnel your connection through it -- Tailscale, or Cloudflare, or even raw WireGuard if that's what you prefer.

You'll basically have your own private VPN

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