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VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

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Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#341

Post by scarface_74 »

kennywinker wrote: post #298
scarface_74 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one country whose healthcare I’ve studied in depth aside from the US is Costa Rica. Our Plan B is to establish permanent residence there and starting next year we will be spending a couple of months there every winter and maybe in July. Costa Rica has an affordable all inclusive public health care system (Caja). But you can also pay for extra for private healthcare. Is it the same in the UK?

The main criticism of two tier healthcare systems (public+private) is that it creates an unstable system. The private system steals all the talent, the rich don’t care if the public system is good since they don’t use it, and thus the public system dies a slow death of 1,000 cuts. In canada we’re in a phase where this is just starting. Private clinics (e.g. telus health) have started to pull doctors out of the public…

The issue is the same in the US. A lot of specialist say they aren’t taking new Medicaid patients and a few who don’t accept Medicare.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#342

Post by p0w3n3d »

I must be honest with you, as far as I am pro net-neutrality, I can observe people using internet irresponsibly. As the internet stood up to allow sharing of science publications, now mostly shared is the pornographic type of content. When Tim Berners-Lee was thinking about people sending themselves a book he probably (we still may ask him) haven't predicted people sending boob/dick pics. As the content technical level lowers, amount of people sharing their stupidity increases. Meanwhile other irresponsible people give phones to their children (I am amongst them) hoping the children won't go into the bad places and trusting in freedom.

Currently my kids got already out of my hand, and I really wonder how could I filter the content that goes to them. Internet became something else, so maybe I won't install a VPN to their phones and they won't be able to see the most horrible things anymore.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#343

Post by graemep »

tweetle_beetle wrote: post #265
graemep wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder why the UK specifically is taking action - is the issue bigger there, or are they just more aware of and willing to act on it. Other countries are moving in the same direction. The EU has repeatedly tried to push things like on device scanning or banning encryption. > Basically every new law, piece of news or media I see coming from the UK paints a picture of a beat-down, cynical & scared society that's co…

The sugar tax is a strange example to pick as an example of British decline. As of 2022, the WHO reported on SSB (sugar-sweetened beverages): > Currently, at least 85 countries implement some type of SBB taxation. It feels to me like this was a rare step in the opposite direction - recognising that industry is the driving cynical force and pushing back on its over reach where it has failed. Most manufacturers reformu…

Its not an example of decline, it is an example of nudge politics and trying to control what the hoi polloi do. I was making two points which is why I said "they ALSO believe".

It is a prime example of class targetting because manufacturers of more expensive drinks still put sugar in them, its the cheap drinks that have switched to sugar substitutes.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#344

Post by ben_w »

areoform wrote: post #241
cs02rm0 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is becoming increasingly authoritarian in ways that feel increasingly antagonistic to the majority of the population, regardless of political party. Taxes are rising (with tax take falling), crimes are going unchecked, just mentioning increased immigration gets a lot of people's backs up, but as GDP per capita continues to stall and even fall, the pressure it puts on services is a factor for many. And we're se…

> Taxes are rising (with tax take falling) > just mentioning increased immigration One of these seems like the solution to the other. > as long as those people leaving are straight, white males, or their families, they're being told "good riddance" regardless of the brain drain and loss of tax income Having UK work experience and having talked to thousands of british folks over a decade, I find this hard to believe.…

IMO, the wheels fell off decades before I was born.

The peak of the empire was around WW1, where the victory was immediately followed by Irish home rule, and Churchill(!) putting the UK military into austerity to save money, which is how it came to be that evacuating from Dunkirk involved a lot of civilian ships, amongst other things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Year_Rule

WW2 was a Pyrrhic victory. Not that Westminster collectively realised the nation's weakness until the Suez Crisis and the Wind of Change: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_Change_(speech)

I'm not sure the people of the UK have yet fully internalised this decline, given the things said and written during the Brexit process. Perhaps social media really did make it all worse, but it's been authoritarian, chauvinistic (both internationally with imperialism and domestically via the aristocracy), and theocratic, ever since Harold Godwinson may or may not have taken an arrow to the eyeball.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#345

Post by graemep »

tim333 wrote: post #273
graemep wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder why the UK specifically is taking action - is the issue bigger there, or are they just more aware of and willing to act on it. Other countries are moving in the same direction. The EU has repeatedly tried to push things like on device scanning or banning encryption. > Basically every new law, piece of news or media I see coming from the UK paints a picture of a beat-down, cynical & scared society that's co…

If most of the public are in favour of the Online Safety Act, then how is it a failure of democracy to have it? I give you the top FT comment: >I, for one, am glad that porn is being age-restricted online. It gives young people false ideas. You'll never get a plumber to come around to your house that quickly in real life.

The Online Safety Act has a reach and consequences than restricting access to porn. As has been mentioned on HN many times it is causing forums to shut down, and people to move to social media instead. It is causing forums in other countries to shut out British users. It is essentially making UGC something only businesses, especially the tech giants, can do. Even with porn age verification is a concern.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#346

Post by spacebanana7 »

kelsey98765431 wrote: post #242
gorgoiler wrote: post #63

The VPN trick potentially won’t last long. We’ve seen it go stale already in the world of intellectual property rights. For at least the last ten years Netflix et al have been well aware of which AS numbers / IP netblocks correspond to people sat at home in front of the TV, and which correspond to servers in a rack somewhere (including those hosting VPN endpoints.) One tweak to the rules and all of a sudden not only…

This is just a cat a mouse game. VPN services will start to offer residential endpoints when enough websites start blocking them enough to damage the value proposition. There is no way on the current internet to verify an ip address means anything at all other than it's an ip address.

This cat and mouse game applies to OP's first category of sites that want to comply for fear of the British government, but not the second category of sites that actively don't want to comply. Let's refer to the second category as deliberately non-compliant.

The UK instructs ISPs to block access to deliberately non-compliant sites, however users want to make connections to the sites and those sites want to receive connections to those users. VPNs will be effective in allowing access to non-compliant sites as long as ISPs can't identify the VPN traffic.

Of course, the British ISPs can initiate the tactics used by China to identify and block illegal traffic. However there are limits to this. Unlike Chinese users, British internet users regularly make connections to international servers so various bridging techniques are possible. Like VPNs, proxies or even Remote Desktop.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#347

Post by rpdillon »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #342

I must be honest with you, as far as I am pro net-neutrality, I can observe people using internet irresponsibly. As the internet stood up to allow sharing of science publications, now mostly shared is the pornographic type of content. When Tim Berners-Lee was thinking about people sending themselves a book he probably (we still may ask him) haven't predicted people sending boob/dick pics. As the content technical lev…

You can just configure their DNS to use 1.1.1.3. No need for the government to step in and manage your child's internet access.

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#348

Post by 6510 »

Aurornis wrote: post #321
areoform wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Taxes are rising (with tax take falling) > just mentioning increased immigration One of these seems like the solution to the other. > as long as those people leaving are straight, white males, or their families, they're being told "good riddance" regardless of the brain drain and loss of tax income Having UK work experience and having talked to thousands of british folks over a decade, I find this hard to believe.…

> One of these seems like the solution to the other. If the per capita spending is exceeding per capita taxation, increased immigration does not solve the problem. More people requires more spending. > The UK has always been an empire in decline I find this fatalistic attitude to be very unhelpful in determining good policy decisions. If you start with the assumption that the empire is in decline then it doesn’t seem…

[flagged]

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#349

Post by Arkhaine_kupo »

fennecbutt wrote: post #124
nindalf wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible that you’ve managed to bring this conversation to immigration. In fact, it sounds like you’re saying the root cause of this crappy policy is somehow immigrants. Far fetched and not cool.

It's a valid topic for discussion. Even as a foreigner who was in UK on a visa and eventually got ilr I'm still concerned about it. The current situation regarding small boats is not sustainable, particularly when it's proven that the majority are not fleeing persecution but are economic migrants. They're taking advantage of a system designed to help people in trouble, how could you defend that? And when does it end?…

> It's a valid topic for discussion

not on a thread about vpn useage

> The current situation regarding small boats is not sustainable

the current situation regarding small boats is the inevitable conclusion to a badly implemented brexit policy and a negligent tory party rule over 13 years. Startmer took 5 months in power to talk to France and have them agree to tackle it on their side of the water. Also no brexit, no boats. The anti immigration chest thumpers caused the problem and then scurried like rats. Farage was impossible to be found the year after brexit won, dude aws the face and suddenly wanted to part of the "glory"

Re: VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in

#350

Post by wongarsu »

winterismute wrote: post #306
areoform wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Taxes are rising (with tax take falling) > just mentioning increased immigration One of these seems like the solution to the other. > as long as those people leaving are straight, white males, or their families, they're being told "good riddance" regardless of the brain drain and loss of tax income Having UK work experience and having talked to thousands of british folks over a decade, I find this hard to believe.…

I always thought linking all the main things not working in the actual world to the alienation caused by too much digital consumption to be wrong/not really making sense. However, gradually, I am getting closer and closer to that conclusion... In your case, what brought you to the stance "Too much social media is what ails the whole world"? What do you think we could do to solve it?

Social Media used to be better when you actually had a connection to the other person. Nowadays it's mostly anonymous or parasocial. All social media sites have drifted to influencer content (TikTok, Meta, Youtube) or to moving the identity of the other person to the background (reddit, HN). The inbetween of early social media with smaller groups of people who know each other has gotten very rare

The other factor is that everyone now knows how powerful social media can be. Remember when we had positive movements like Occupy Wallstreet, the Arab Spring and Anonymous Hacktivism all facilitated by social media? That doesn't happen anymore. Small things like getting traction for a petition still work, but anything that questions existing structures has no chance of succeeding anymore. Instead social media is overrun by bots that simulate broad consensus on many issues

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