just do what the chinese do to get around thier great wall. use proxies and anti-detect browsers, its the next step after VPN… you might want to look around how to set these up.
UK households could face VPN 'ban' after use skyrockets following Online Safety Bill
Submitted 8 months ago by themachinestops@lemmy.dbzer0.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/uk-households-could-face-vpn-32152789
Comments
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 8 months ago
swelter_spark@reddthat.com 7 months ago
The Russians also have some pretty good tools.
Mistic@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Proxy is a step below VPN since it doesn’t tunnelise data.
Anti-detect browsers. Do you mean Tor? It’s a decent solution, albeit the slowest one.
What people use to bypass the great Chinese firewall is VPN with VLESS protocols. Unlike usual VPN protocols, those are specifically made to bypass censorship.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 7 months ago
no not TOr, there are better proxies than what you are thinking, no not tor browsers.
socialsecurity@piefed.social 8 months ago
But they can't seem to muster up the "political" will to tax the rich
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Someone should start a bussiness near the border of Republic of Ireland and get two antennas pointed at each other across the border, with the RoI side having connected to the free internet, then the UK Northern Ireland side connected to the Intra-net. You pay a “Club Membership Fee” to get access to the proxy network.
Its not a VPN, its a Nerd Techie Club, just with a free proxy service as part of the club membership 😉
ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Gonna end up with a country-wide rogue WiFi mesh network setup that’s fed from neighboring countries haha
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It’s it possible to turn our phones into Intranet nodes and have some connect to the uncensored Internet?
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
This online safety bill is dishonest. This has nothing to do with safety and everything to do with money.
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
China Laughs Communistically
frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 8 months ago
They can come and pry TOR from my cold dead hands lmfao
this law can eat shit. i ain’t gonna dox myself and feed my personal info to companies. maybe they should take this as a hint that most people care about their privacy
if you don’t want kids seeing NSFW stuff be an actual parent and don’t raise your kids on the internet??
Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 8 months ago
Yeah I’m Australia we have just decided to ban all social media for people under 16, i think it’s great honestly because screw from insta etc but I don’t think it’s the government ls job to prevent kids from using social media.
I really think it’s a way to force adults to register their id to accounts not about protecting kids.
Parents should monitor what their kids are doing not the government
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Parents should monitor what their kids are doing not the government
While I agree wholeheartedly with this, it’s often not that easy.
Back in the days of 28.8 modems my parents found my little bro’s downloaded porn stash. It was in a Zip disk in his underwear drawer. They then locked down both of our AOL accounts so we couldn’t see that stuff.
I thought this was bullshit because I kept my Zip disk full of porn next to all the other ones and labeled it “Homework.” Why should I get punished if I didn’t get caught?
So I downloaded a keylogger, stole my dad’s password, and unlocked my account and continued to download porn.
However, I don’t think government regulation would have worked in my case.
magickrock@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
I agree that it should primarily be a parents responsibility to keep kids off social media. But the big problem with social media is that a large proportion of young children don’t want to be on social media and recognise the detrimental impact it has on them, but the fear of missing out or being excluded is what keeps them on it. it then becomes a collective action problem, to get them off it you need to get a lot of their peers off it as well. There are movements where groups of parents try to do this, but reaching the critical mass necessary to do it is difficult.
Hopefully the ban keeps a large number off to reduce the pressure on kids to be on it and at the same time the parents can do their bit as well.
tal@lemmy.today 8 months ago
"If VPNs cause significant issues, the Government must identify those issues and find solutions, rather than avoiding difficult problems.”
When I was a kid, Reddit and general public Internet access weren’t things, but I sure managed to get my hands on pornography. I’m pretty confident that even entirely killing Internet access isn’t going to stop kids who want to get ahold of porn from getting ahold of it.
ThePrivacyPolicy@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Kids will be out there studying for their ham radio licenses to setup wireless long range packet networks and bbs’s just to exchange porn lol
Wooki@lemmy.world 8 months ago
“Safety” meanwhile these same mp’s can’t budget can’t run critical public services.
But don’t worry, your thoughts are policed
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
This bill has nothing to do with safety. Safety is just the scapegoat here.
frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 8 months ago
it’s both hilarious and sad how this is coming from a “please think of the children!!” perspective meanwhile gender affirming care for trans kids got banned pretty recently
dubyakay@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
We call this a waste of tax payer’s money.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
If they outlaw VPNs then all internet-connected businesses will flee and everyone will just move to the dark net. Then you’ve got a whole other problem.
These ancient tyrants are in over their heads.
Pacattack57@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Honest question but what makes you think that would happen? Do most businesses use VPNs?
skisnow@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
VPNs are one of the core security measures of all large companies.
VPNs aren’t just a “hide your IP” tool, they’re a way of giving someone access to an organisation’s internal network. Sensitive servers such as databases, wikis, scheduling tools etc don’t have publicly exposed IPs, they only have connections that are accessible from inside that VPN. See also en.wikipedia.org/…/Defense_in_depth_(computing)
ArtVandelay@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have no less than 7 VPNs installed on my work laptop, and I work for one single company.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Damn near every business uses VPN technology. They literally cannot exist in the modern world without it. It would be incredibly expensive and impractical to do without.
Mamdani_Da_Savior@lemmy.world 8 months ago
I have never worked for a company that didn’t utilize VPNs.
itsprobablyfine@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
I work in consulting. I have a VPN for my company and also for each client
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The UK has long championed writing legislative checks that their emaciated state infrastructure can’t cash.
misteloct@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Selfishly, I think this is great for I2P/Snowflake/Tor. The incoming legitimate traffic helps to protect all users.
LinyosT@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
If they do outlaw it will likely be banned solely for non-business use for this reason alone.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
If only I could start my own business….
ReiRose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Nanny state
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 months ago
You’re literally being Jimmy Salvile right now
~ Guy who posed for photo ops with Salvile twenty years ago
ReiRose@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Omg my brother amd I went to see Rolf Harris when we were kids and he invited my brother onto the stage. So woerd to think of now 😕
badbytes@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Banning VPNs is quite a serious move.
some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
Enterprises will love that. A perfect excuse to end wfh. However, this will cripple business travelers. I’m sure there’ll be some exception for corporations where they can exercise maximum control over their employees while still being allowed to generate capital.
Hey UK: suck it.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They couldn’t switch off VPNs for businesses. I work in a hospital and we use VPNs to create secure tunnels to other third party health care companies as well as NHS adjacent health services amongst other things. This is to protect patient sensitive data amongst other things. This would cripple our service and go against NHS england and government requirements for the secure transfer and sharing of data.
This would have to be public VPNs only. Despite the fact that it would be complete bullshit either way.
blargle@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Well, you could just go back to sending stuff by fax machine forever, but then instead of even using the fax machine to sync patient data just make the patients fill out their own entire medical history from scratch every time they go to a different doctor and take their word for it.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
This is to protect patient sensitive data amongst other things.
Its 2025, we no longer need such silly things. Don’t worry, its for the greater good.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Exactly. They best they could hope to do would be to create an exemption for businesses in which case I open my own fapping business.
atticus88th@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Ive got a few UK coworkers that will be out of the job if anything disables VPNs. They voted for that mess now they can sleep in their 1/3 salary local jobs too.
gaiussabinus@lemmy.world 8 months ago
A VPN is just a proxy. I don’t see how this would be enforced.
febra@lemmy.world 8 months ago
So now it’s not just TERF island but also nazi island.
frenchfryenjoyer@lemmings.world 8 months ago
As a Brit I’m sorry for how embarrassing our country’s authorities are becoming
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
As an American, can we trade governments?
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Every society has its pathway there. TERFs are one of the last milestones.
GB has really wanted to go fascist autocratic since Germany looked over in the 1920s and saw a like minded kin.
BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 8 months ago
Did we? Some maybe, I do recall the fascists got the shit kicked out of them on Cable Street. More of that please.
arc99@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It would have been smarter for the UK to mandate that every ISP must provide a family filter for free as part of their service. Something that is optional and can be turned on or off by the account holder but allows parents to set filters (and curfews) if they want.
dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Crazy because every (isp provided) router I have used has these options. They probably aren’t 100% correct all the time, but it would be good enough for children (even though you shouldn’t rely soley on filters to replace watching your kid).
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
The problem is that they’re not trying to protect kids. They’re trying to be like China where ever user has to identify themselves so they can be tracked across the internet.
SpaceCadet@feddit.nl 8 months ago
The problem is that content filters don’t work all that well in the age of https everywhere. I mean, you can block the pornhub.com domain, that’s fairly straightforward … but what about reddit.com which has porn content but also legitimately non-porn content. Or closer to home: any lemmy instance.
I think it would be better if politicians stopped pearl clutching and realized that porn perhaps isn’t the worst problem in the world. Tiktok and influencer brainrot, incel and manosphere stuff, rage baiting social media, etc. are all much worse things for the psyche of young people, and they’re doing exactly jack shit about that.
arc99@lemmy.world 7 months ago
That’s a problem is for ISPs and content providers to figure out. I don’t see why the government has to care other than laying out the ground rules - you must offer and implement a parental filter for people who want it for free as part of your service. If ISPs have to do deep packet inspection and proxy certs for protected devices / accounts then that’s what they’ll have to do.
As far as the government is concerned it’s not their problem. They’ve said what should happen and providing the choice without being assholes to people over 18 who are exercising their rights to use the internet as they see fit.
ErmahgherdDavid@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
They know. The “think of the children” angle is just cover to enrage the tabloid readers and to be used as a straw man against anyone criticisng the law (“you’re a pedophile”). The real purpose is “let’s enumerate the IDs of everyone who uses the internet for anything we don’t like” and “let’s censor anything we don’t like starting with LGBTQ content”
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
The new Christian nationalist orders are not so patient. Even Charles X of France rolled back rights too speedily, sparking public outcry resulting in Parisian haircuts. (a bit off the top 🪟🔪)
SCOTUS used to be sneakier, carving out sections of fourth- and fifth-amendment protections, but since Dobbs the Federalist Society Six have tossed subtlety and reason to the wind and now adjudicate away rights based on vibe and conservative rhetoric grievance.
Hopefully the US and UK both will recognized why the French public was swift to act when manarchists took shears to the Napoleonic Code.
obvs@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Lots of ridiculous-looking people in politics today. They could use some haircuts.
archiduc@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Exactly. This was turned down on on my professional phone so that was always an option.
Clbull@lemmy.world 8 months ago
(NOTE: Any links to politician tweets in this comment are from Nitter mirrors, not direct links to Elon Musk’s nazi bar.)
The Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle, pretty much called Nigel Farage a paedophile in a news network interview earlier today because he opposed the Online Safety Act, by saying he’s on the side of sex offenders like Jimmy Savile. He then went to Twitter and doubled-down on this stance, amid a lot of fury.
For context, the Online Safety Act has been used to censor and age-gate anything and everything deemed “illegal content” under Ofcom guidelines, else risk getting fined up to 10% of your annual global revenue. This includes anything related to illegal immigration and people-smuggling. Twitter had genuinely been forced to censor all coverage around anti-asylum seeker protests behind age verification requirements.
Zia Yusuf (head of Reform’s DOGE division, yes they’re ripping off Trump and Elon Musk) had this to say about the OSA on Twitter:
Britain is now a country which you can enter illegally without ID, but need photo ID to watch a protest against people entering without ID.
Let that sink in.
Labour have fucked up so catastrophically hard with how they’ve handled this legislation, that they’ve straight-up generated bipartisan sympathy for the leaders of a right-wing populist party - who are the only political force that have vowed to repeal the legislation because it is being used for mass surveillance and censorship.
If Labour don’t get rid of Keir Starmer, do a full cabinet reshuffle and reverse course, we are going to see a Reform landslide in the next election…
Bubbey@lemmy.world 8 months ago
i don’t trust a hair on Farage’s little head lol
MU5T4N6@feddit.org 8 months ago
Labour was supposed to destroy the Tories, not join them!
portnull@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Crozekiel@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Holy shit that is brilliant…
JustTheWind@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Just adopt a CCP style social credit system already. Why all of this pussyfooting around being a totalitarian, censorship focused, surveillance state? Just do it. Give the good people of UK a solid reason to be a little bit more French again.
plyth@feddit.org 8 months ago
There has been a widespread misconception that China operates a nationwide and unitary social credit “score” based on individuals’ behavior, leading to punishments if the score is too low. Media reports in the West have sometimes exaggerated or inaccurately described this concept.[4][5][6] In 2019, the central government voiced dissatisfaction with pilot cities experimenting with social credit scores. It issued guidelines clarifying that citizens could not be punished for having low scores and that punishments should only be limited to legally defined crimes and civil infractions. As a result, pilot cities either discontinued their point-based systems or restricted them to voluntary participation with no major consequences for having low scores.
Bubbey@lemmy.world 8 months ago
As an American, it always made me laugh when we made fun of China’s “Social Credit Score” when we literally have one already that determines whether we can buy houses/cars/etc lol
Limonene@lemmy.world 8 months ago
What about all the people blocked from air travel due to low Social Credit? Are you saying that never happened?
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
This is, if true and accurate, delightful news! And has improved an otherwise troublesome day.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Iapetus@slrpnk.net 8 months ago
So, nothing will ever meaningfully improve?
MangioneDontMiss@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
those two people who downvoted you can go eat a big bag of dicks.
PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Damn. Labor really wants to lose that election to Farage. Good luck to Corbyn and Sultana, I guess.
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Farage: Gets elected.
Everyone: At least you’ll abolish the OSA!
Farage: Nah, I said that because it would make me popular. Amma use the OSA to ban things I consider “woke”.
Darleys_Brew@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Most authoritarian option there is.
DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
And there’s the other shoe dropping with VPNs now. Didn’t even take them an extra fucking year
ragas@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
Didn’t even take a week.
MehBlah@lemmy.world 8 months ago
There are ways around this even if they do ban vpn. Its a hopeless battle being fought by the ignorant.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 8 months ago
They will use it as an excuse to give themselves more power and to take more civil liberties from you.
derpgon@programming.dev 8 months ago
I mean anyone can rent a server in Europe and install OpenVPN themselves. Hell, it doesn’t even need to open OpenVPN, Wireguard works just as well and is basically undetectable.
Eat shit, UK government, for real. Idiots think that by speaking the same language as US fascists they can have similarly dumb ideas.
WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
wireguard is not undetectable, even wireshark has a simple way to identify it, but there are more accurate ways
MehBlah@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It would have been my go to. But they can detect openvpn and other protocols. I would just use a ssh tunnel with squid proxy. The squid wont cache ssh traffic unless you run your own cert and set up the squid that way. It will however seamlessly allow you to connect through a ssh tunnel with one port forward.
jabjoe@feddit.uk 8 months ago
To be honest, I’ve found WireGuard’s performance is harmed more by reply attacks than OpenVPN. Least that is what I put it down to when I tried them both from a VPN provider that offered both.
SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 8 months ago
“We will force you to do what we want”, democracy in action
HubertManne@piefed.social 8 months ago
Maybe if they see significant issues with the populace adhereing to this law they should identify the solution of revoking the unpopular law.
ftbd@feddit.org 8 months ago
Wireguard evil, mmkay?
0x0@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 8 months ago
Labour are not governing for the people, and they are not the Labour party anymore.
PushButton@lemmy.world 8 months ago
The Collective Shout Out must feel envious of such power… Think about all what they could ban, you know, for you and your children protection of course.
possumparty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
I’m looking forward to the next UK election where the headline will be: Labour has lost the election in a landslide that left them with dozens of votes total
Every single person who didn’t think this would affect them who watches porn in any capacity is very likely highly pissed off and will continue to be for as long as this draconian bullshit is enabled.