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It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

tech.yahoo.com

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Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#111

Post by codedokode »

bena wrote: post #25

Uh, that's not going to fly. We use a VPN to enable remote users to access our internal network for things we don't want exposed to the public at large. And we're not a tech company. This really sounds like someone who has no fucking clue trying to legislate away all the loopholes to their other shitty legislation.

How it works in Russia, if your corporate VPN is blocked by mistake, you can just submit the application to whitelist it, providing all the necessary documentation (we have pretty advanced e-government system so you can submit it online), and with high probability it would be accepted. If your VPN gets accidentally blocked again, all you need is to write to an on-duty officer and it will be unblocked.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#112

Post by [deleted] »

ButlerianJihad wrote: post #92
hellojesus wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this not a 1A violation?

Because you also cannot counsel anyone on how to rob a house, or steal a car, or commit arson. You can teach them how to start a fire, and fire safety rules for the home, and you can teach them how to secure their cars and point out common vulnerabilities, but you can't actually counsel people on how to commit a crime or do something illegal. Well, you can and I guess that is your "free speech" but the judge is also…

[deleted]

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#114

Post by nostrademons »

djeastm wrote: post #39
jespinel wrote: post #9

IMO, this is one of the main strengths of the US: you have 50 different options to live according to your values and beliefs, and relatively little friction if you decide to move to a state that better reflects them.

>relatively little friction That word "relatively" is doing a lot of work in this phrase. 50 options sounds great until you think about the realities of it. As someone who's moved around a half dozen times, shared "values and beliefs" pales in comparison to the practical concerns of jobs, family, climate.

A lot of people underestimate the effect of shared values and beliefs on their happiness, though, and would be better served by taking a lower-paying position to live in an area that fits their values better.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#115

Post by brd529 »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #28

This is the next part of the national Orwellian surveillance system that is "age verification". The first part installs spyware in every operating system. The second part makes it illegal to work around it or find any alternative means of privacy. The final step is a government-mandated ID for logging into these devices with the OS controls, so the government can track everything you do on every device. This is the m…

We (in the tech industry) did this to ourselves. The internet my kids have is very different than the internet I had in the 90s. Algorithmically optimized short form video or other content in an infinite scroll is hurting children so much it borders on abuse. They have no brain capability to resist the micro-dopamine hits we are so scientifically delivering to them. The biggest tragedy is that it hits the lower income kids the worst - the ones whose parents are around less often to monitor their device usage.

Parents and policy makers have noticed that their kids attention spans are lower, their ability to read and reason is lower, and most alarming their ability to socialize suffers. Of course they are going to try and stop it. Requiring age verification, and putting the onus on the social media sites seems like a way to do this. We are able to verify ages for all sorts of things online, e.g. gambling sites, opening bank accounts, etc. It shouldn't be too hard for social media sites to figure out how to require age verification to create an account that can access their service.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#116

Post by mindcrime »

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to read Cory Doctorow's novel Attack Surface and to think deeply about the message contained within. He has something significant to say, IMO, about the need for people like "us" (that is, people who care deeply about these issues) to use our knowledge, resources, skills, etc. to help effect changes in public policy through the legislative process as opposed to trying to "out tech the bad guys". And that's rooted, as I understood it, in an argument that you can't "out tech the bad guys" over the long run, because they (the US government and other nation states) can always just beat you on resources and volume.

Anyway, I hate trying to summarize that, because I'm afraid I'll mis-state things and fail to do it justice. Seriously, just read the book. It's worth it.

And if you don't want to read the book, a reasonable proxy might be to suggest "just donate some money to the EFF".

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#117

Post by cvoss »

giantg2 wrote: post #6
close04 wrote: post #2

> It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs > The law, which takes effect May 6, doesn't make VPNs illegal — but it's a blow to your rights, even if you don't live in Utah. > websites subject to the state's age verification law will be legally barred from explaining how to use a VPN to get around age restrictions. They'll also be liable for enforcing age verification for any user within Utah's phy…

I don't think so. How do you think they can implement your third quote with substantially undermining VPNs? Do you know of other states closer to banning them, either directly or indirectly?

There are many comments here that are confused about what the bill actually says. Headline very much implies something about a law banning VPNs. But that's not what the headline really means. So it's misleading.

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#118

Post by rootusrootus »

giantg2 wrote: post #61
nine_k wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue states are mostly states with large coastal cities, and thus larger incomes.

You seem to forget that those states tend to have rural (red) populations that get affected by the laws the larger population in the cities pass at the state level.

I am trying to think of examples of blue state majorities oppressing rural populations.

Allowing gays to marry if they want, does that count as oppressing rural Christians?

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#119

Post by chrisweekly »

Barbing wrote: post #70

“The internet is built to, and will always, route around censorship. If Utah successfully hampers commercial VPN providers, motivated users will transition to non-commercial proxies, private tunnels through cloud services like AWS, or residential proxies that are virtually indistinguishable from standard home traffic. These workarounds will emerge within hours of the law taking effect. Meanwhile, the collateral damag…

Perfect quote. Thanks for sharing it!

Re: It's official: Utah is the U.S. state closest to banning VPNs

#120

Post by semiquaver »

rafram wrote: post #44
semiquaver wrote: post #36

[flagged]

I can’t believe I’m defending a Yahoo tech blogger, but this is unnecessarily rude. You don’t need to be an attorney to report on legislation, and being from Portland has absolutely no bearing on his qualifications. You’re just appealing to lazy stereotypes.

It’s not just reporting, this is a legal analysis that is in my view not very good.
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