Good luck with that. Even China hasn’t managed to fully block VPNs.
The bigger problem is not restriction which is a big problem in and of itself, but outlawing VPN usage itself. That’s a guaranteed path to authoritarianism or whatever the UK will become.
Also please don’t add text to editorialize the title on someone else’s post. If you want to make it clear, comment. This I’m sure is against PG guidelines.
I removed it but honestly the title is unclear.
Yup.
That’s how the publication chose to title it and so we should leave it be. Plus, I made it clear it wasn’t my title, it was the publications. So, let people read and come to their own conclusions from their own assessments.
With the speed at which VPNs have been targeted this year after the age verification requirements, I think it’s one of the easiest examples to point to of how these laws are trojan horses to fully locking down the internet and eroding our privacy even more, intended or not.
And this is what people don’t get that we must teach them because it requires knowing tech, understanding tech policy, and writings on the wall akin to symptoms of what the government at large is trying to do.
The problem is just like with any other, folks are too busy just trying to survive than focusing on such issues which by the time they do, they will notice it once they are themselves being affected negatively and of course its too late by then. And that apathy is what the government and corporations are counting on.
We in the know realize what’s going on and what’s going to happen. We can see it. Only wish media also focuses on such issues to raise awareness. Too much info out there to process it all. Even the important stuff gets lost in the mix.
Russia and China have demonstrated that blocking VPNs is impossible, yet governments still appear capable of undermining existing VPN providers through multi-layered approaches.
As this article states, they can request individual sites to block access from VPNs. Determining whether an IP address belongs to a VPN provider is relatively straightforward. False positives in such determinations would likely be justified under the guise of protecting children’s rights.
Furthermore, simply demanding the removal of VPN apps from major app stores, imposing strict ratings, or strongly urging vendors to restrict built-in VPN features in operating systems can disconnect the vast majority of non-tech-savvy users from VPNs.
They do make it pretty darn hard which may as well be impossible for the average person who is not well versed in obfuscation trial and error. But the idiocy is indeed palpable.
Enforcement of this is where it will end up - whether countries can force the websites to comply.
I think I read only part of the article, the remaining (if any) is paywalled.
I second this. The problem is not governments blocking access to VPNs but outlawing their usage. If outlawed, most people would stop using them, and those who defy the law would become easier to target.
I imagine but haven’t thought deeply about other possibilities driven by government pressure may also exist, subject to enforcability: VPN providers refusing certain customers, age verification for VPN usage, websites/services blocking access via non-compliant VPNs, Apple and Google removing non-compliant VPN apps from their app stores.
I wonder what portion of the privacy community is taking these possibilities and how it could affect them seriously, and how people plan to respond. It may be well worth thinking about what you will do if your VPN usage is outlawed where you live. Same for E2EE, Tor and other things you often use in the event those are outlawed (or compromised).
Honestly, I’ve spent a decent amount of this year thinking about what it would be like to try to retain privacy in all of these circumstances. It helps so that I can see more of the scope of the problem instead of rushing to doomerism. It’s also a kind of cope as I try to craft my way forward in a more invasive world and sometimes pretend that it’s acceptable. But the biggest thing is that it puts a fire under me to take action today before I lose more privacy tomorrow.
On most systems its very easy to sideload any app you want without beeing tech savy.
Of course they try to limit this, liek Google tries it on Android, but since Android is Open Source, the privacy and security focussed distribution will just ignore this update
I personally think we should start thinking about changing drastically the way we do networking, rather than trying to put band-aids like VPNs to a fundamentally insecure and non-private system
What do you propose instead?
Mainly using overlay/alternative networks, and pushing for more decentralisation and trustless protocols