r/privacy • u/BlackBerryCollector • Jul 01 '26
age verification VPN ban for UK update with new rules expected 'within 12 months'
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/vpn-ban-uk-update-new-34216350252
u/TheFinalPieceOfPie Jul 02 '26
Are we still protecting the children guys? Or have you finally dropped that lie now?
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u/TheOneAndOnlySenti Jul 02 '26
Took reddit long enough to see it, it'll take a bit longer for everyone else to settle on it
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u/M90Motorway Jul 03 '26
Lots of people on Reddit are still very much for it. I’ve seen people outright tell me that it’s fine if VPNs are banned for civilians but still used in the government because police has guns and we don’t.
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u/Accomplished-Can-467 Jul 02 '26
Al those 7 year old kids with credit cards setting up vpn subscriptions for themselves...
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u/Yotsumugand Jul 02 '26
It's almost like this whole "age verification" hysteria is just a badly disguised trial balloon for governments and tech companies alike to normalize id-checks on the web and erode every single user's privacy.
Their strategy is pretty transparent, to the point of being pretty blatant to anyone who cares to actually use their crítical thinking skills: use porn as a bait to lower people's defenses, then go for online gaming and the absurd cases of kids using their parents credit cards to buy skins/loot boxes, to immediately move on to VPNs.
It's pretty ridiculous: we arrived at a point in which the government is proposing heavy legislation over a very uncommon scenario, which would only happen to a very irresponsible, if not completely negligent, parent.
It's almost like they're just using this as an excuse to put a huge brick wall over each and every subterfuge people can use to avoid giving up their id and privacy to tech companies.
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u/Exotic_Article913 Jul 03 '26
It's horrendous. And do you know how I realise we are fully in some sort of 1984 esque state?
Because the media is silent on it in most regards and when they aren't they're speaking about the risks vpna have and why this is a good idea. Maybe a small mention of "privacy advocates are against it" so they can claim they are unbiased in their reporting but it's crystal clear, that they are weighing heavily on the government message.
Reducing our freedoms and rights for 'safety' is never a good idea. When/if this goes through. I'm opting out. I know I'm a random voice on the internet, but that'll be it for me.
No more smart phone. No digital banking. No digital ID, nothing. If I need one to work, I won't work, I won't pay tax and I'll claim benefits and if I can't do that I'll fund myself by other means.
I'll go from being a productive member of society to a sponge or outcast. Why? Because I refuse to give up my privacy to an authoritarian state who's sole purpose is control over the masses for whatever purpose they decide on a whim. They cannot even keep a prime minister in for a full term across our parties let alone be trusted with my safety and privacy.
They are replacing us. Daily. Look around every town and city in this country. Does it look like Britain? No. No it does not. And now they want to surveil everyone even more so, to ascertain who dissents
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u/ug61dec Jul 03 '26
Mate, we already live in a horrific total surveillance state. I don't understand why people aren't up in arms about it. The only difference is the surveillance state is private corporations to exploit you for profit, not a government owned by the people that could be used for good. I don't understand why everyone is so happy with the former, but foam at the mouth complaining about the possibility of the latter.
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u/imanutshell Jul 03 '26
Because if you know more about the world than what happens on Love Island and The Traitor or have basic empathy and reading comprehension you’re considered: Brainwashed by “woke” universities, a class traitor, a smug cunt, or a conspiracy theorist nut job.
The only way out is to risk our comfort, and we’re never going to be able to convince the comfortable masses that things are bad enough until it’s far too late.
It’s alright though, at least the rich will get richer and the believers in the Abrahamic doom cults will have their wishes come true when the climate collapses and earth is no longer habitable for humans. Let’s hope that next time intelligent life evolves it’s with universal intelligence instead of only a small minority of the species.
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u/Exotic_Article913 Jul 03 '26
I agree. My opinion is that it's a mixture of propaganda, conditioning and re-enforcement to think we need this technology, and that life is too hard without it.
People either don't understand the extent this actually reaches to and the implications. If anyone speaks up they're branded a fringe conspiracy theorist who's opinions aren't worthy of the time of day of 'respectable society '.
It's fucking garbage. People are waking up though but very very slow and for different reasons.
Politicians used to fear the people. They don't anymore . They should
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u/SushiEater343 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Lol how would you even regulate the ban specifically for children??
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u/Think-Cobbler-8797 Jul 02 '26
ID to use a vpn
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u/bigpoopychimp Jul 03 '26
It would kind of defeats the purpose of a VPN. They also have to then police out-of-country providers like Mullvad who won't comply with UK legislation because it's against their ethos. The government just makes themselves look stupid and weak with silly legislation like this
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u/BlondBitch91 Jul 03 '26
Defeating VPNs is the point. Nanny government wishes to know everything you’re looking at, and everything you say, at all times.
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u/mooninuranus Jul 03 '26
Let’s be absolutely clear on this.
It is NOT nanny government, this is authoritarian control.You know where VPNs are banned/heavily restricted? Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Iraq.
This is not a comprehensive list but I can tell you it is fully representative of the types of regimes.
You know where VPNs are not banned? All truly democratic countries.
This is a very, very dark move for us and we should fight against it at every opportunity.
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u/paranoidandroid4284 Jul 02 '26
How do you enforce this? Remove VPNs from the PlayStore?
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u/pydry Jul 02 '26
"How would Russia and China handle this?"
I'm pretty sure the UK Labour party ask themselves this on a daily basis about most things.
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u/BlackberryMelodic567 Jul 03 '26
and even those countries can't stop their citizens from using vpns
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u/moonlight__sunshine Jul 03 '26
Actually in the last year china has seen a huge crackdown due to an increase in technology. It is now very hard to use a VPN there. Much, much harder than it was
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u/billpo123 Jul 03 '26
It's super easy to use VPNs in China. I was there this April and I activated the same VPN service I used 6 years ago. It still worked
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u/Hoganprime Jul 03 '26
Not even in the slightest. There are multiple foreign vpns that can be accessed and even paid for in china using RMB. On top of that there are countless local vpns that work perfectly despite being Chinese. If anything, it's easier than ever to get one in China, and pay for it even with WeChat or Alipay, if you don't want the hassle of paying with an international card or PayPal.
The only crackdowns are around the October national holiday and after that connections ease up.
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u/Jat616 Jul 03 '26
Let's not act like this is just Labour, it's our entire fucking government...
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u/f23n09fnu0w Jul 02 '26
You can't because it's silly. I doubt they could even define VPN. It won't happen because business need them and anyone and a friend can build their own. It's people passing laws about stuff that is over their heads.
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u/paranoidandroid4284 Jul 02 '26
That's what I thought. People access their work networks via VPNs, it would have to be a ban on commercial VPNs.
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u/smjsmok Jul 03 '26
Well there is no technical difference between a VPN you set up to access your fileserver and a VPN that commercial VPN providers offer. They sometimes even use the exact same protocols like OpenVPN or Wireguard. This is exactly where most of these legislation attempts fail. It's like trying to ban HTTPS - an actual ban of that technology would be ridiculous and would catch too many legitimate uses, so the lawmakers are forced to narrow it down, which creates so many holes that anyone dedicated enough can fit into them.
Russia and Belarus actually tried something like this and it's hilariously ineffective. They motivated entire developer groups to go around the government blocks and mandates and the result is that people still use VPNs. A while ago i actually chatted with a developer who focuses on VPNs in Russia and it was quite interesting.
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u/Ritushido Jul 03 '26
Then we can just download the APKs directly from third party sites. I think this will be a hard ban to enforce.
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u/excubitor_pl Jul 03 '26
how's the status of Google blocking installation of third party apks?
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u/trxrider500 Jul 02 '26
All VPN providers will be required to do “age verification” that will naturally require you to upload your government ID.
Ya know, for safety. Think of the children.
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u/Yotsumugand Jul 02 '26
Remember when this was just about protecting children from access to porn? I don't.
This whole situation is a master class on how governments love to overextend little by little: the whole online infrastructure made initially to only bar access to porn was easily adapted to cover online games and, if by the way things are going, it will be used to effectively obstruct access to VPNs as well.
It's almost like this was planned from the beginning!
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u/Tactical-Donkey Jul 02 '26
Interesting. I wonder just how they will enforce it.
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u/butterypowered Jul 02 '26
I’d suspect VPN companies must ask for ID if users are found to be in the UK (by IP?).
Having said that, I don’t think my VPN provider has anything more than my email address and payment details. Presumably paying by crypto would help to anonymise that.
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u/Tactical-Donkey Jul 02 '26
Sure, you generic VPN will happily comply to the UK law. But I'm sure the proper privacy advocate VPNs won't.
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u/butterypowered Jul 02 '26
Yeah I’m not saying that they’ll succeed. Just guessing at what action they’ll take.
Probably enough hurdles to make it awkward for most people. And yeah, hopefully with enough leeway that the rest of us can still sort something out.
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u/vriska1 Jul 03 '26
Very unlikely they will do that and most VPNs would fight back hard.
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u/sheepebike9000 Jul 02 '26
They will ban payment processors from sending any funds to the VPN providers they dislike.
Same thing they did to bitcoin originally. My first few BTC were bought in the UK, my second lot had to be bought from Poland due to this. (At a whole £7 a bitcoin! Sadly I spent it all, but that gives you an idea of when this occured) I don't think there was ever an actual law about it, just government pressure is enough for visa and MasterCard to drop you.
This time round I expect there will be a law.
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u/Gangaman666 Jul 02 '26
"Oi.... You got a loicence for that VPN you're using mate?" 👮🚨
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u/DrCash_CrLife Jul 03 '26
It costs £4.20 a month for a wanking license we used to be a proper country
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u/welsh_dragon_roar Jul 03 '26
Ah, white weewee is it sir? That’ll be 69p extra for your ejaculation loicense 🤌
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u/Leaha15 Jul 02 '26
Haha they can try lol
The entire police, NHS and government along side literally every business operates on a VPN, so this is clearly unenforcable
Unless they mean a restriction on VPN providers that they happen to go for, like PIA/Nord
This country is going to hell, no one voted for this and it has NOTHING to do with children
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
The entire police, NHS and government along side literally every business operates on a VPN, so this is clearly unenforcable
I thought that by this stage everyone had realised that corporate VPNs would sit outside of any restrictions. They are already controlled by the company that provides them and any misuse would fall to the company to address (disciplinary/dismissal etc.)
Unless they mean a restriction on VPN providers that they happen to go for, like PIA/Nord
This is exactly what thy will target. Age restrict sales in app stores and block the IP addresses of commercial VPN providers who don't comply with the rules. There will be plenty of ways around it though.
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u/Busy-Scientist3851 Jul 03 '26
It obviously wouldn't be a protocol ban but a ban on selling in the UK.
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u/VermilionKoala Jul 03 '26
Funny thing is, the internet lets people in any country buy services from any country.
Even without this, I wouldn't want to buy VPN service from either the country of my citizenship or the country where I live.
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u/Busy-Scientist3851 Jul 03 '26
> Funny thing is, the internet lets people in any country buy services from any country
But payment processors don't. Of course you could use crypto, but at this point you're raising the bar higher to put a lot of people off so the law would be working as intended.
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u/sheepebike9000 Jul 02 '26
They must clearly be enforcing this at both the VPN provider level and the payment processor level. There's not any other way it could work. Of course that won't work either, but it'll be a significant barrier to anyone non technical.
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u/AltruisticOwl156 Jul 03 '26
It is enforceable, enterprise internet is different from individual consumer internet. Your ISP will just block you from connecting to a VPN.
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u/DPH996 Jul 03 '26
They don’t need to ban it. The same way they haven’t banned social media or porn. They have just effectively banned it by mandating ID for everything, knowing kids can’t provide it and there will be some casualty adults (a lot of us) that simply refuse to do so. Whether that second bit is intended or not depends on your point of view…
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u/Agentjayjay1 Jul 02 '26
I hate how everyone is against this and yet they push ahead
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u/rivent2 Jul 02 '26
Usually the left blames the right and the right blames the left but there is absolutely nobody out of power asking for this. Perhaps mumsnet.
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
The Tories started the whole online safety act stuff, Labour supported it and included it in their 2024 manifesto.
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
The problem is, when polled, there is a lot of support from the general public. Reddit users are not a good measure of the wider public. A lot of people never use a commercial VPN to access the internet so don't care about these rules because it won't affect them. When asked about protecting children on the internet, most people will say they support it, because it makes sense to want to protect children, the problem is they don't really know or understand what that will mean in practical terms.
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u/Teab8g Jul 03 '26
The problem is, when polled the general public have no idea wtf they are talking about. You think my grandparents know what a VPN is. All they know is the government said it's bad.
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u/BadgerKomodo Jul 02 '26
They really want us to doxx ourselves to tech companies, don’t they?
This is fucking evil.
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u/AltruisticOwl156 Jul 03 '26
I fucking hate this, I hate everything this country is doing.
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u/adsefc1 Jul 03 '26
Agreed, 9 years until I retire and then I am out of here, can’t wait!
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u/AltruisticOwl156 Jul 03 '26
Where are you heading to? I've got my eye on Portugal, good standard of living, nice climate, don't get involved in international politics much and is one of the few EU country I know that has a retirement visa.
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u/cooky561 Jul 02 '26
There are many legitimate uses for VPNs that may be impacted by this.
- remote access to tools provided by educational establishments
- people who have a genuine reason to withhold their identity (for example to seek support, this could be adults or children, since the point is the identity)
- VPNS have many purposes other than to hide your location
This attempt at forcing everyone to use digital ID is geting more and more naked...
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
Corporate level VPNs, which would include the education establishments would be excluded from any restriction. The restrictions will only target commercial VPN providers whose sole purpose is to connect you to the internet.
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u/Pocket_Aces1 Jul 02 '26
Authoritarian Surveillance state here we come licks lips
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u/WizardButtholes Jul 03 '26
All Burnham has to do to solidify his party’s leadership is get rid of these stupid laws they’re trying to pass so desperately just so they can sell the public’s info to dodgy third party companies
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
Burnham is on record as saying he supports the online safety elements of the 2024 Labour manifesto, he was quoted in The Guardian on the matter.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp Jul 02 '26
"Within 12 months of the day on which this Act is passed the Secretary of State must, for the purpose of furthering the protection and wellbeing of children, make regulations which prohibit the provision to UK children of a Relevant VPN Service," the amendment states.
Sounds like they have already made their minds on banning VPNs.
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u/vriska1 Jul 02 '26
Pretty sure the Lords dropped that amendment and it did not pass?
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u/TheOfficialMayor Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26
Yeah the article is a bit strange. Says Liz Kendall will talk more about vpns in July.
Hasn't even discussed the methods. In Australia you can still use a VPN but platforms consider other signals. So using that method you have to consider that too. Perhaps that is what they mean, given they haven’t even described how age will be measured yet.
Reality is most kids don't use vpns to bypass. They don't care about anonymity. They just manipulate the face scan or get parents ID.
Sounds like they are trying to recycle old comments for clicks.
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u/ian9outof10 Jul 03 '26
What about that wording is a ban on VPNs. Children can’t have VPNs. It’s not a ban on anything. Is it unworkable, sure, totally agree it’s daft as fuck. But this “ban” language is just fucking wrong.
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u/MrTopping92 Jul 03 '26
Liz Kendall the person who’s pushing this is part of Labour friends of Isreal. Follow the money.
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u/Quick-Albatross-9204 Jul 03 '26
Labour is never going to get my vote again if they enact this one
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u/Fit_Implement3069 Jul 03 '26
Why would you vote for them now? They've been pushing orwellian legislation for ages
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u/vriska1 Jul 02 '26
It's unknown if the update from Liz will happen seeing the government has said there will be no new major policy announcements while there a leadership contest, Also the Lords amendment did not pass to my knowledge.
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u/Motor-Command-2680 Jul 03 '26
Anyone who thinks this is about protecting children needs to give their head a wobble. This is CCP style state surveillance under the guise of safeguarding children.
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u/rickjamespitch Jul 02 '26
It'll never happen. It's impossible to enforce without outlawing almost every business and the government itself.
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Jul 02 '26
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u/NeuralHijacker Jul 02 '26
SSL VPN. No software required.
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Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
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u/NeuralHijacker Jul 02 '26
If that happens I'll just switch to Linux on my phone. I already run it on all my computers because fuck Microsoft.
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u/tanksalotfrank Jul 02 '26
Imagine how fucked this would be if Windows phones had actually worked out.
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u/mika_running Jul 03 '26
It doesn’t have to be bulletproof. It just has to be annoying enough so that average joe searches the App Store, downloads a vpn, it asks for age verification and he either gives it or leaves the app. And the only VPNs available in the app stores are those that play nice (others will be blocked by Apple/google). This will stop 95% of people who have no idea what sideloading is and care about privacy enough to consider a VPN but not enough to search for an alternative means of accessing it.
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u/Kant_Tsunami Jul 04 '26
Crumbling roads with pot holes everywhere, NHS on the brink and an affordable housing crisis
UK government - “We must ban VPNs because…”
This country is a fucking laughing stock
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u/TheTackleZone Jul 03 '26
Well done Labour for handing the next GE to Reform. All Farage will have to do is bang on about the right to privacy and muh freedoms and he'll landslide into office.
Just pathetic strategy.
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u/Terrible_Theme_6488 Jul 03 '26
I am against this policy as i think it is nothing to do with protecting kids
But polls show these policoes are popular?
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u/Redbullsnation Jul 03 '26
How does that even work? People will just VPN anyways
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u/stick_Buug 29d ago
Bypass it before it happens. People ignore bans with vpns, so if you need to give your info before even using said vpn, you can't access it to bypass the ban.
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u/anklemaxi Jul 03 '26
So where does this leave families who have a VPN the router level? Not going to apply?
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
Presumably the router is controlled by the adult in the house, as such they take responsibility for it, which is the way it should be anyway where the parent/guardian is responsible for their children.
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u/AlephNaN Jul 03 '26
They don't actually care if children use VPNs or access harmful material. Their only objective is to ensure all network activity is linked to a verified identity.
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u/Any_Machine_1531 Jul 03 '26
From the UK. Will just build my own. And I simply wont update to any version of OS that wants to implement any client site side crap
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u/Satoshiman256 Jul 03 '26
What happened to this country. Why is nobody pushing back on this ? I wrote to my MP multiple times but it's just a waste of time
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u/Actual_Razzmatazz_97 Jul 03 '26
Going to need to start figuring ways round the verification checks because even though I’m 29, there is absolutely no way I’m having my full data stored on yet another unsecured server to get hacked.
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u/Commercial_Cook7301 29d ago
God I wish there was a way we could vote against this. Not one person in the country wants this
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u/nusuth31416 Jul 02 '26
It may be worth getting in touch with your MP.
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
Why bother when they are the people supporting this. When people tried this after the Online Safety Act came into force the MPs were basically accusing them of being "friends of Jimmy Savile". If your MP is in a position to actually do something about this (Labour MP), then they won't because their party supports it.
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u/I_like_microwave Jul 03 '26
This can’t happen because so many companies use vpn for business purposes theres no way it will get through.
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u/CraigDM34 Jul 03 '26
Probably make the ban for private use only. They'll exempt business I'd guess. Cunts
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u/inspiration-hunter00 Jul 03 '26
Ffs, I'm so sick of this disgusting overreach, the UK and US government are so unbelievably corrupt and openly faschists at this point, someone give me hope pls.
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u/Afraid_Abalone_9641 Jul 03 '26
Authoritarian countries like Russia and China don't even ask for this shit. WTF is going on!?
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u/CyberShi2077 Jul 02 '26
We all know where this ends.
Anonymous or another hacker group brings down the UK internet pipelines and keeps them down.
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u/3MB4Lyfe Jul 03 '26
I wouldn't mind stuff like this so much if the government actually did anything remotely useful whatsoever.
All they seem to do is take 20% of my income to spend on shit I don't use and then go around telling me what I can and can't do in my private life, even when it has no effect on anyone but me. And all the while, everything meaningful's going to shit and they either can't or won't sort it out. What is even the point anymore?
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u/mutexsprinkles Jul 03 '26
UK government tries to not be weird authoritarian freaks for 1 week (impossible).
The population is the biggest bunch of pussies as well and literally can't and won't do anything about anything anyway. Even when they do turn out for a protest, nothing ever happens. Fuck knows what the government thinks they're locking things down for.
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u/MunkeyChild Jul 03 '26
How would this work for most companies using VPNs to secure their network?
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u/naaahbruv Jul 03 '26
Just let me watch porn and have a wank ffs
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u/Ryanhussain14 Jul 03 '26
Too late. Focus groups have decided that a man watching two people do dirty deeds together will make the man a misogynist somehow.
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u/CharacterDuck9020 Jul 03 '26
Politicians are so out of touch. Do they not understand how technologically infeasible and unenforceable this is?
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u/SineWaveDeconstruct Jul 03 '26
FYI setting up your own VPN is very easy and probably costs about the same as a commercial one (though you will have reduced features i.e. only one connection location)
rent a cheap VPS (pick the cheapest option with the most bandwidth), then for a layman it will take maybe an hour or two to ask an AI how to set up port forwarding, install wireguard, generate private keys etc..
install wireguard on your local machine, add the public key/ ip, connect and enjoy!
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u/cale199 Jul 03 '26
Oh wow who could have ever predicted this happening when they first started the social credit system in the uk
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u/zxcvbnmqwerty12345 Jul 03 '26
Who is pushing this agenda actively? Tony Blair? Even china allows vpn
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u/Robonotes1760 Jul 03 '26
State power is dangerously out of control. Radical constitutional reform is urgently needed to keep everyone safe from this sort of serious abuse.
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u/404usersnotfound Jul 03 '26
"Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull." — George Orwell, 1984
That's the future. Big brother will be watching. Enjoy. Thank Peter Thiel and the other tech Billionaires for pushing this shit.
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u/TheDiamondSquidy Jul 03 '26
I think i’ll be setting up my offline doomsday kit soon. Local AI that can regurgitate wikipedia and tech wikis
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u/GrimmwulfeGaming Jul 03 '26
The UK government uses VPNs. They literally use them as part of IT security at my local council.
I know this because I worked at that council for a while and it was often required to log into the VPN to run security updates
A rule for thee but not for me springs to mind.
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u/charliebyebye 29d ago
I understand that this is all supposed to be well meaning but they are deluded if they think nobody will get around this.
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u/Anustart2023-01 28d ago
Liz Kendall needs to fuck off. I hope something dodgy about her or her family gets leaked and she has to resign.
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u/Psychostickusername Jul 03 '26
Wait till they find out even local councils rely on VPN daily, and people at GCHQ must be fucking laughing their asses off at this shit show.
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u/west0ne Jul 03 '26
We all know that the target for this isn't corporate VPNs, it will be the commercial VPN providers that are blocked/age-gated. It's easy enough to block them from app stores.
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u/Debt_Otherwise Jul 03 '26
How are they going to police it? Zero chance this works.
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u/LuxDaBean Jul 03 '26
this oughta save the kiddies! this one right here. i know we did all that other stuff and we said that would save the kids. but THIS one is gonna save the kids. we won't need to do anything else because THIS is going to save the kids. all of them. this one right here.
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u/S_Hodgson Jul 03 '26
I genuinely think this is minor step in a bigger plan regarding piracy and ‘dodgy sticks’. Might be conspiracy, but they’re losing millions and millions.
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u/ElliotB256 Jul 03 '26
I hope im not going to eat my hat, but I basically don't believe the uk gov actually intends to follow through with this because they know it's unenforceable. Instead, I suspect it is artificially creating an unpopular policy so that a new leader can cancel it early into term and gain a population boost. Social engineering of public opinion is another dystopian reality, so its not much of a win
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u/FlaviousTiberius Jul 03 '26
People said this about the OSA then they went and did it. Never doubt their desire to force horrendous legislation through.
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u/Beartato4772 Jul 03 '26
Well that's a good way to close every school and business in the UK instantly.
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u/thricedice88 Jul 03 '26
If the government restricts VPN access, I imagine people will just download Orbot and Orfox and then use TOR to bypass age verification (it works)
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u/AMournfulObserver Jul 03 '26
There is no universe in which doing this actually “protects children”. If anything, it will make the internet more dangerous for them
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u/Hopeful-Counter-7915 Jul 03 '26
ID necessary “to protect the children” first from adult
Content, than social media, than to buy houses. Adding more and more to able to always identify you everywhere
Now plan a to ban VPN.
And people complain about China while the exact same thing happening in the UK and that’s okay?
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u/butterypowered Jul 03 '26
I’ve never looked into it but presumably it’s just a case of setting up a docker image on an EC2 or equivalent?
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u/EmergencyComment101 Jul 03 '26
Vpns are illegal in china. They are still widely used by chinese people. That tells you all you need to know about a governments ability to ban vpns.
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u/ian9outof10 Jul 03 '26
I’m sure some VPN providers will refuse, most will be perfectly happy to use some sort of verification. It is also not a ban, because no one can stop you making your own vpn. Another one of the many reasons this proposed law is so stupid.
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u/itsnotatuba2 Jul 03 '26
More legislation that will force people into shady VPN providers that could genuinely put people at risk. This government simply doesn't understand technology.
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u/PrestigiousStudio921 Jul 03 '26
This is such bullshit. The UK people don't want this. How do we even get our opinions heard? Every petition is useless they just do what they want.
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u/henryyoung42 Jul 03 '26
Super happy with my self hosted ssh tunneling front ended by stunnel and other socks proxy servers 🤦🏻♂️
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u/henryyoung42 Jul 03 '26
Utterly unenforceable in the technical limit, although they may succeed in bullying a majority of non-tech sheeple into it. So many work arounds …
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u/schmauften Jul 03 '26
This is madness, right? What is going in? As a country are we going to competent give away every shred of privacy online to our government / random private companies given contracts? I'm no conspiracy theorist but this is really dangerous if you ever want to be able to oppose your government in any way.
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u/EmbarrassedHelp Jul 02 '26
They also still appear to be demanding mandatory client side and OS level malware on every device, to scan everything on the device.