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VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

birminghammail.co.uk

271–280 of 400 posts

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#271
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your argument is that a group is conspiring to establish policy in a country, the idea that it's happening in many, many countries means the threshold for evidence is now much higher, since the group should be able to have much more control.

This is the logical conclusion but there is currently a mass wave of Meta grunts downvoting. Apparently if countries all put an age limit on tobacco it must mean there is a secret group coordinating for it for ulterior reasons.

[deleted]

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#272
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no more feeds showing content from outside social connections So, kill all news agencies and reporters I guess? or would there be a carve out for incumbents so they can cement their market share? who controls the approval list?

News agencies don’t do personalized curation. Every reader, at least from the same city, gets exactly the same content.

> Every reader, at least from the same city, gets exactly the same content

That alone is a value add people don't realize even as they're losing it: it created a shared reality you and locals inhabited, that you could have a conversation about.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#273
I'm curious what GCHQ make of all this. Increased VPN usage will reduce their visibility into internet traffic. They can try to force VPN providers to implement ID checks but if the provider is overseas it's not so easy to get that information.

Not to mention that this will be used as an opportunity by state actors to harvest info on UK citizens via hostile VPN services.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#275

Too many people are seeing this like engineers and not like bureaucrats. They won't be able to block all VPN services, and they don't really care. VPN still works in China. The entire point is to acclimate the public to a system of fear and control. You won't get arrested because you used a VPN, you'll get arrested a few weeks later because your neighbor snitched on you. They can easily enforce these laws without any…

> They won't be able to block all VPN services, and they don't really care

The simpler explanation suffices. Politicians want to react to a political demand and don’t really care about the implementation details.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#276
I'm pretty busy and behind the times a bit on this one. What is a practical method to avoid such a ban? I'm not in the UK, but there seems to be a general anti-privacy movement that is sweeping the globe.

What can we do when such a law comes to our country?

- Route all traffic via tor, then connect to a VPN from Tor?

- Finally learn I2P?

- Something else?

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#277
post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your argument is that a group is conspiring to establish policy in a country, the idea that it's happening in many, many countries means the threshold for evidence is now much higher, since the group should be able to have much more control.

This is the logical conclusion but there is currently a mass wave of Meta grunts downvoting. Apparently if countries all put an age limit on tobacco it must mean there is a secret group coordinating for it for ulterior reasons.

I wonder what happened in the past 3 years which put this on the agenda of all these countries.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only (probably) good thing here is that one can at least try to apply Russian experience at circumventing the censorship, where it's currently way more severe, up to the point when entire companies have their workflows disrupted because remote workers can't connect through the VPN (which is blocked). Maybe that will help.

You see, the problem is that all exit points of our VPNs are in Europe. These too can be banned quite easily. Where to will we run next, given that this cancer tends to spread?

One solution is that United States radically supports free speech and provides Starlink access to Europeans as a humanitarian act.

It would be similar to Radio Free Europe which was broadcast to the former Soviet States.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#279
post #45

I've been using a VPN in the UK on my laptop and phone exclusively for 20 years, and the state has been working with ISPs to make "connection records" for most of that time. On mobile a VPN isn't always effective in avoid geoblocks. Some apps are able to determine I'm in the UK and still ask for ID - reddit is one for example, if you stumble on to an adult subreddit. Using the web interface avoids this. The UK has al…

Mobile browsing should be considered high risk for most users except for the most mundane activities.

Re: VPN ban update for UK households as government looks at 'age-gate'

#280
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is there to research? The trade-offs and how many people care and about what specifically. E.g., you say "Privacy is a human right", so why is it that half the websites I visit ask for permission to share details of how I use those sites with more corporate "trusted partners" than there were students and staff combined in my secondary school? I'm all on board with just banning this kind of analytics, but there…

> E.g., you say "Privacy is a human right", so why is it that half the websites I visit ask for permission to share details of how I use those sites with more corporate "trusted partners" than there were students and staff combined in my secondary school? Because capitalism itself is the enemy. And information assymmetry is a potent tool, as is constant and persistent surveillance. All of these enable extracting more…

Yeah, you don't have these issues in communist countries. . .
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