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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day – VPNs now a Red Flag as Age-Check Lobby cracks down on privacy A trade group representing companies that build age verification systems is now lobbying to extend these checks to anyone using a VPN in the UK. The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) wants online platforms that fall under the UK’s censorship law, the Online Safety Act, to not only detect VPN usage but also analyze user behavior to guess whether someone might be a minor in disguise.
If flagged, users would face a prompt: prove your age, or allow a one-time geolocation to confirm you’re outside the UK.
According to the AVPA, this process is necessary because VPNs can mask users’ actual locations, allowing them to appear as though they are in countries where age verification laws do not apply. The association points to data showing a dramatic increase in VPN use around the time the UK’s new internet rules were enforced, suggesting people are using these tools to bypass restrictions.
This approach treats privacy tools as a form of defiance. Here, VPNs, once considered sensible and essential for online security, are being rebranded as suspicious.
– Richard Eldred
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No one was really concerned that kiddies were viewing smut until it became clear that this was the camel’s nose that could wipe out internet anonymity.
Well, stap me vitals! Trade group wants thing its members do made mandatory. Who’d ever have thunk?
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
―Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
lobbying to extend these checks to anyone using a VPN in the UK…. If flagged, users would face a prompt: prove your age, or allow a one-time geolocation to confirm you’re outside the UK.
That doesn’t make any sense. If the check is for anyone using a VPN in the UK then they have to already know you are in the UK. And if they know that why do they need to geolocate you?
Which is to say that the only way this is possible is to demand that the VPN providers geolocate every user in the world, and, if UK is the determined location, perform the UK specialized checks.
Not only will VPN providers not in a million years do that — disguise of geolocation is one of their key selling points — but it is an EXTREMELY harmful thing — meaning that oppressive regimes like China could know who the users are, deeply undermining the right to protest and organize against oppressive regimes.
No VPN provider will do that, so they are effectively demanding a ban on VPNs within the UK (like wot I predicted — and for my next trick I predict that this evening the sun will set in the west — you’re welcome…)
But the worst thing is the horrific evil of these age check companies, trying to make a few pennies by destroying the internet that gives them life and breath, and making a buck off the back of the brave men and women who use these tools to stand up against the world’s worst tyrants.
Of course Britain is the right place to do that since it is quickly heading to the top of the heap of most oppressive governments in the world. It isn’t there yet, but hold Keir’s beer; he has another four years to go.