VPN use surges in UK as new online safety rules kick in • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by ezekg » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

zaptheimpaler wrote: post #27

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 complacent to or in support of increasing surveillance and control by the government. Like maybe Adolescence or basically any mention of the NHS. The crimes they cite like child grooming or terrorism/hate being incited sound pretty terrible too, but I wonder why the UK specifically…

> There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- forever.

- George Orwell, 1984

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

#482

Post by mitthrowaway2 » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

datadrivenangel wrote: post #458

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does immigration boost productivity? It's labor-saving automation and machinery investments that boost productivity. I would expect these to be driven mainly by labour scarcity. Growing the labour pool seems like it would drive exactly the opposite. As two examples, Japan has low immigration and an aging population and despite that its productivity has never been higher. By contrast Canada has had extremely high…

Increasing the input labor results in more production.

Yes, but we're discussing productivity not production. Production is the numerator, but productivity also puts labour hours worked in the denominator.

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

#483

Post by blendo » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

I need to prove my age to buy a lottery ticket or purchase alcohol. The merchant typically doesn't save my id info.

What if I could purchase a unique QR code, good for maybe a month, that I could use online to prove my age?

There'd still be problems in the US with 1st amendment issues, but I'd at least remain anonymous.

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

#484

Post by mgaunard » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:19 PM UTC

Any advice of which country I should set my VPN to for the best experience of freedom?

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

#485

Post by vaylian » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:20 PM UTC

JFingleton wrote: post #456

Xelbair wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From tourist point of view UK felt to me like a police state, and I'm leaning more towards the former view. Cameras everywhere, non-stop reminders that you're being watched, being tracked everywhere(including which train car you're in now), constant reminders about possible dangerous bags being left alone etc. Tracking would feel helpful and useful, if not for constant oppressive reminders that "Bad Thing could happe…

I always thought a police state would demand identification at every street corner (perhaps I'm wrong?) and any minor breaking of the law being dealt with severe justice. The UK has always been against a "state ID" unlike a lot of European countries, so I'm not completely convinced the description of "police state" is accurate. In fact I think it's the opposite given people can freely break the law despite cameras be…

> I always thought a police state would demand identification at every street corner (perhaps I'm wrong?)

The facial recognition technology for that already exists. And the UK has a sufficiently dense CCTV coverage.

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

#486

Post by anarticle » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

ericmcer wrote: post #419

ap99 wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an American living in London and I'd gladly return to the US just for the healthcare. Granted I'm in tech so that's steady employment with benefits, but there you go.

I haven't lived in another country, but I have never had an issue with healthcare in the USA. It does seem like you can step on a landmine if you are negligent, but I have employer paid healthcare now and it works great. When I was low income (during my early 20s) medicaid would legitimately hound me to keep me on it. I actually had an issue because they kept enrolling me after I got I job that no longer required the…

If you have a kid that landmine can be larger than you think if you’re at the wrong hospital.

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

#487

Post by jonasdegendt » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

ricardobeat wrote: post #264

kelsey98765431 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There is no way to offer “residential endpoints” at scale with sufficient bandwidth for anything other than simple browsing of text websites. As shown by the very effective Netflix strategy of blocking VPN addresses, it’s been very hard to slip through for a good four or five years now.

> There is no way to offer “residential endpoints” at scale with sufficient bandwidth for anything other than simple browsing of text websites

They can, it’s just a lot more expensive than a $10 a month VPN. They’re typically metered and you pay by the byte.

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

#488

Post by filoleg » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:22 PM UTC

blendo wrote: post #483

I need to prove my age to buy a lottery ticket or purchase alcohol. The merchant typically doesn't save my id info. What if I could purchase a unique QR code, good for maybe a month, that I could use online to prove my age? There'd still be problems in the US with 1st amendment issues, but I'd at least remain anonymous.

> what if i could purchase a unique qr code, good for maybe a month, that I could use online to probe my age?

I can already smell a business opportunity to start illegally reselling/dealing age-verification qr codes.

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

#489

Post by ToucanLoucan » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

mattmanser wrote: post #400

ben_w wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Wes…

That happened a long time ago, the realization was the 70s. Thatcher reversed the feeling by selling off the nation to rentiers and foreigners in the 80s, we rode that money in the 90s, and the wheels came off in 2008.

[flagged]

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

#490

Post by pembrook » Mon, Jul 28, 2025, 5:24 PM UTC

wnevets wrote: post #472

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…

> 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…

So if we’ve agreed with OPs assessment that the problem in the UK is the government attempting to seize more power…how will becoming subjects of yet another government body that is even more powerful and less beholden to the people…help things?

The EU might be better on digital privacy right now, however the emotional winds of the political mob change often and many people in EU government feel differently. The EU is also an aging population of technologically illiterate and immigrant-afraid retirees. I wouldn’t expect much different coming from them in the future.