So effectively truly Private vpn providers have to have an exit from UK. I mean even if say proton says that its not meant for UK but "substantial" people use protonvpn because its private, then they would be forced for the same laws.
Another point is what prevents UK govt or UK bots to sign up for Proton Vpn say themselves and the difference between bots and humans is becoming thin especially for such Private Vpn's and then UK govt comes again knocking asking for age verification.
Honestly makes me feel like UK citizens are hostage in their own countries & we might see more UK IP's being blocked from accessing services because the idea of Virtual private network is still vague in my opinion. One can abstract a sort of VPN on top of xmpp or matrix servers too or even telegram as the intermediate. Would that mean that UK govt would come knocking onto these asking for who created the VPN (suppose I built a VPN which uses telegram to send messages/packets or uses telegram infra, so would they come to telegram asking what is the IP/detail info of my telegram user, would they go to signal or xmpp or matrix providers too? What if I use a provider who colo's on a datacenter and they go to the datacenter asking for access or the company behind datacenter
I am not saying that they would for something so niche but the fact of the matter is that nothing's stopping them from the laws from what I can gather.
They would only have to do it once to instill fear in the masses. I mean technically just this law has instilled fear and I am not even a UK citizen
Someone familiar with UK law please comment on my message but VPN is such a vague term imo. Like at this point you are just targeting private networks or people who meet online in private
VPNs LITERALLY means Virtual "PRIVATE NETWORKS"
What gives the govt right to intercept between two parties communicating in any way (enforcing a condition for one party to have Id of other for age verification etc.)
> It does not require either party to have the other's ID.
Sure but that's literally not my point.
It's still an interception because the govt is still decided who can communicate (essentially) or not.
You cannot communicate with a vps provider if they don't have your ID and this condition being forced as a requirement otherwise the UK govt.s gonna jail and sue into literal millions is much akin to an interception in basically everything.
It literally is your point "enforcing a condition for one party to have Id of other for age verification etc".
As for the provider, there is not prhibition on communicating with him, with or without ID. Just on him providing service to other than verifed adults.
> As for the provider, there is not prhibition on communicating with him, with or without ID. Just on him providing service to other than verifed adults.
Oh okay yea I don't mean that exactly but from my original comment what I meant was that the service of VPN is still essentially just a communication layer of sorts between two devices where a middle man can sit technically.
I was referring to this as still a communication creating a network between these two vis a vis VPN
And they are having restrictions on VPN's, my point of fear in this context is that suppose I host anything between two computers, technically its still a VPN (think a proxy or even a VPS or even cf tunnels alternative or heck even my self hosted tmate)
My point is that they are all still technically VPN's and this rule can still apply. I don't think that they can refer to VPN as wireguard or something as we imagine and this gives immense power to them
> I think unfortunately you are right. The prohibition is wide - to head off evasion.
No worries, I wish I was wrong too but sadly I am just following the logic-ish that I am feeling is gonna happen, but I am happy that our confusion atleast got solved and I was able to proper explain what I am thinking.
Wrote a little poem inspired by the famous germany wwII poem-ish that I read in my history book
First they came for our social media, I didn't say anything
Then they came for our vpn, I didn't say anything (we are here)
Then they came for our vps providers, I didn't say anything (By definition a connection with VPS can still be considered a virtual private network, I don't think that they have ruled it out in the law)
My biggest fear is that this will be replicated if it turns out to be good for the people in "power"
My worries is that a single mis use of this can/will put everyone in line that nobody's safe.
I am not even sure if this rule can somehow be exploited for non UK users as UK users seems the most impacted but non UK companies would be impacted too. I mean we already had global surveillance but this is putting things into global level. First time something like this is happening in a democracy fwiw imo (atleast for VPN)
It's scary developments and I am not prepared to live through this era of privacy dystopian nightmare fuel. I hope a resistance can emerge other than the doomerism I feel right now because my point is right now its the UK citizens who are fucked by their govt. but we can just very much be likely on the chopping block too.
I know internet resistance is meh but something's better than nothing and I hope UK creates protests about this as its still not written in law (but being honest I am doomerist about it that chances of it being signed are almost 100% given that someone created a petition and it got signed in UK and they were legally forced to discuss it but somehow they didn't like wtf about the Online Safety act?)
I mean, much support to my UK friends to prevent such 1984 dystopia. (I am tired of saying 1984 but literally 1984)
Looks like a Internet resistance should be established for freedom. We privacy conscious users should combine and try to discuss more about what are some things which can be done but I must admit that I don't know the solution but I hope that a solution can come out of discussion or a clear plan of action.
Another point is what prevents UK govt or UK bots to sign up for Proton Vpn say themselves and the difference between bots and humans is becoming thin especially for such Private Vpn's and then UK govt comes again knocking asking for age verification.
Honestly makes me feel like UK citizens are hostage in their own countries & we might see more UK IP's being blocked from accessing services because the idea of Virtual private network is still vague in my opinion. One can abstract a sort of VPN on top of xmpp or matrix servers too or even telegram as the intermediate. Would that mean that UK govt would come knocking onto these asking for who created the VPN (suppose I built a VPN which uses telegram to send messages/packets or uses telegram infra, so would they come to telegram asking what is the IP/detail info of my telegram user, would they go to signal or xmpp or matrix providers too? What if I use a provider who colo's on a datacenter and they go to the datacenter asking for access or the company behind datacenter
I am not saying that they would for something so niche but the fact of the matter is that nothing's stopping them from the laws from what I can gather.
They would only have to do it once to instill fear in the masses. I mean technically just this law has instilled fear and I am not even a UK citizen
Someone familiar with UK law please comment on my message but VPN is such a vague term imo. Like at this point you are just targeting private networks or people who meet online in private
VPNs LITERALLY means Virtual "PRIVATE NETWORKS"
What gives the govt right to intercept between two parties communicating in any way (enforcing a condition for one party to have Id of other for age verification etc.)