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SoundCloud has banned VPN access

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Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#131

Post by webstrand »

butlike wrote: post #121
vpShane wrote: post #53

Should be interesting to see how the internet blocks those of us who don't want to be fingerprinted, ID'd, or reveal our home IP addresses. YouTube already blocks embeds to login and prove I'm not a bot, funnily it doesn't work and embeds never play. Reddit will block me unless I'm signed in which I don't mind too much, but the daily beast and many others block me which is a shame because I'm a real human being using…

In the nicest way possible: who cares? So "they" know my vile pornographic proclivities, my daily commute, and probably what color my poop was this morning. Then what? I get embarassed? Snowden showed the NSA has taps upstream, so in my book: that's over. I'm fairly convinced if your company reaches a size where it could potentially be a national security threat, the government comes knocking (Facebook, Apple, Twitte…

This only works so long as you're not interesting to anyone. You never know what past information associated with your identity will be weaponized against you. By the government, corporations, or individuals to justify harming you. Even if you're safe and secure in the belief that your neighbors will never turn on you, others are not so lucky.

Did you travel to get an abortion? Someone might be interested in charging you with a felony. Did you associate too closely with non-citizens? Maybe you're one too. Did you reserve a hotel room? Probably willing to pay more for flights there. Do you frequent hacker news? Might not be so in favor of the current political establishment.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#132

Post by jijijijij »

cowboy_henk wrote: post #117
jijijijij wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless Apple would make an anonymizing VPN connection mandatory, I don't see any difference to the situation as is. As long as people can be pressured to turn off the VPN, nobody loses any customers. Additionally, I don't think paying customers are the target, since they usually provide identifying information anyway.

If Apple started routing all iPhone/Mac traffic through some anonymizing VPN by default, services that block it would absolutely lose lots of customers.

Yes, but Apple wouldn't do this, because Apple is also at risk of losing customers when people get blocked by network security at work. We could also fantasize about Apple fighting all the tracking everywhere, including their own services...

Quite frankly, it's a bit silly to paint Apple as some privacy fortress, who wouldn't have to comply with law enforcement/intelligence to unmask/tap traffic. I mean, for a lot of people VPN choice is done considering legal jurisdictions somewhere far away. Apple could/would never possibly offer this level of protection.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#133

Post by MangoToupe »

acka wrote: post #75
tallytarik wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of VPN and proxy detection services, either as a service (API) or downloadable database, which are surprisingly comprehensive. Disclaimer: I’ve run one since 2017. Years on, our primary data source is literally holding dozens of subscriptions to every commercial provider we can find, and enumerating the exit node IP addresses they use. There are also other methods, like using zmap/zgrab to probe for…

> Years on, our primary data source is literally holding dozens of subscriptions to every commercial provider we can find, and enumerating the exit node IP addresses they use. Assuming your VPN identification service operates commercially, I trust that you are in full compliance with all contractual agreements and Terms of Service for the services you utilize. Many of these agreements specifically prohibit commercial…

> I trust that you are in full compliance with all contractual agreements and Terms of Service

Why? It's not like there's any real moral (or, likely, legal) reason to care beyond avoiding the service's ban hammer.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#135

Post by orliesaurus »

i’ve watched this VPN arms race get weird over the years... as a user i feel like the license wars always spill over onto my connection.

rights holders keep demanding geo fences and identity checks... service providers comply because they don't want to get sued.

BUT... the blunt tool is to block whole swaths of IPs... then we all scramble.

i think the conversation around Apple or any single company saving us is missing the point.

ALSO... even if a big platform rolled out an anonymizing proxy... regulators would still push for carve outs... copyright exemptions... law enforcement taps.

the root is the business model... ad targeting... licensing... fraud detection... all of which depend on tying a real person to a real IP.

HOWEVER... if enough of us treat VPN use as normal... the calculus changes.

blocking a few percent of weirdos is easy... blocking half your paying users is not.

i don't know the answer... but i suspect it's going to get more fragmented before it gets better.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#137

Post by ryandrake »

socalgal2 wrote: post #101

I keep wishing “privacy” company, Apple, would release a VPN such that no business would be able to block it as they’d lose too many customers

It sucks that we need rely on a big company to make a big, scaled-up change like that in order to move the needle. This looks like a pretty fatal flaw in the design of TCP/IP. IPs should be randomized periodically and they should all be equal. You shouldn't be able to tell someone's country from them, let alone their city, ISP, whether it's coming from a business or somewhere residential, whether they are a bot or a human. The Internet shouldn't have boundaries like this, and the fact that it still does shows there's still work to do.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#138

Post by OkayPhysicist »

IAmBroom wrote: post #90
bilekas wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which is a shame because I'm a real human being using the internet as intended. This is the main issue here, the web has become actively hostile to normal people in the quest to monetize every second of online activity.

"Actively hostile" is another of the common myths. See also: "corporations are evil". "Completely indifferent" and "Corporations are completely amoral" are more accurate. It's the difference between someone trying to drown you, versus someone trying to fish while you drown just off the bank. Same end, of course.

What do you think "evil" means? In the real world, there's no one holding up a platonic ideal of moral action and swearing to do the opposite, like some comic book antagonist. Real world evil is acting with complete amorality, because if you don't care about right or wrong in your pursuit of some goal, you inevitably will do some heinous shit.

That's not to say corporations don't come awfully close to the comic book concept of evil. By definition, a corporation's prime purpose is an uncaring commitment to making money, and if you've gone public, making all the money. That's awfully close to being the opposite of the "good" ideals of generosity and kindness.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#139

Post by yeasku »

cedws wrote: post #66

I tried creating a SoundCloud account recently for uploading DJ sets to and it just outright wouldn't let me. Didn't matter whether I was or wasn't on a VPN, or whether I had clean cookies. Crappy bot detection. You can be sure I'm never paying for such a hostile service.

Uploadig dj sets with comercially released music to Soundcloud is not allowed.

Re: SoundCloud has banned VPN access

#140

Post by gruez »

suslik wrote: post #41
gruez wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Across 3 VPN providers I use, none of them have issues accessing reddit anonymously. There are nodes/regions that are blocked, but finding a working server isn't hard.

Might be you're logged in? I often hit a block when using (proton) vpn if I'm logged out but not otherwise.

>accessing reddit anonymously
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