UK PEOPLE: this is REALLY IMPORTANT.
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@oschonrock
I'm assuming that this is the government's intention. To produce a generation of teenagers who understand TOR, and choose to use it as a first step, using their phones as routers and randomised exit points.
@cstrossI have no idea if that is their intention. Highly doubt it, given how clueless they are.
The smart ones will use TOR bridges so it's even less trackable.
But then you were probably being sarcastic, and well, I agree. That's what happens when you put stupid logs in people's way.. they learn to jump over them. And some will break their legs doing it.
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@cstross @david_chisnall I'm not planning to do anything that would result in the government seizing my computer 🙂
There is no way the government can know whether or not I use a VPN or not, nor whether I use TOR.
Unless the law allows the police to randomly inspect people's computers, and they do this to a significant proportion of the population, I can use any VPN I like without fear. We don't live in a police state yet...
@Fonant @david_chisnall Sure you're not planning on doing anything. That doesn't mean it won't happen to you. Remember, "if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear" was a favourite saying of Lavrenti Beria.
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So in the context of this discussion, and if you lived in the UK, would you object to being age/identity verified when purchasing your vpn subscription?
It is almost certainly not an annonymous transaction anyway, as those are very very difficult to execute..?
@oschonrock @PeterSommerlad @cstross I'm presuming they'd want to check your age every time you USE a VPN connection? Otherwise the restriction on underage use would be meaningless.
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@cstross Ethical issues aside - how are m2m VPNs expected to validate their age?
"hi, I'm an environment monitoring device and was born barely 6 months ago, but I swear I'm old enough to use my built-in VPN to access my MQTT server"
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@oschonrock @PeterSommerlad @cstross I'm presuming they'd want to check your age every time you USE a VPN connection? Otherwise the restriction on underage use would be meaningless.
@Fonant @oschonrock @PeterSommerlad The people proposing this amendment in the House of Lords are technical illiterates, that's what makes this so dangerous. So it will be interpreted over-broadly and damagingly with inevitable, unpredictable, side-effects.
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@oschonrock @PeterSommerlad @cstross I'm presuming they'd want to check your age every time you USE a VPN connection? Otherwise the restriction on underage use would be meaningless.
@Fonant @PeterSommerlad @cstross
I doubt that... Or actually... they prob haven't thought about that sort of useful detail.
But just like when your porn account has been age/verified once, you then just "log in" (or carry some kind jwt in a permanent cookie) for subsequent usage.
And yes, if your kid can get access to your computer and log in as you, then all bets are off.
VPNs will likely be similar?
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@Fonant @david_chisnall Sure you're not planning on doing anything. That doesn't mean it won't happen to you. Remember, "if you've got nothing to hide you've got nothing to fear" was a favourite saying of Lavrenti Beria.
@cstross @david_chisnall The likelihood of the police taking my computer for forensic examination is zero.
I have plenty of things that I must keep private. So does everyone.
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@Fonant @oschonrock @PeterSommerlad The people proposing this amendment in the House of Lords are technical illiterates, that's what makes this so dangerous. So it will be interpreted over-broadly and damagingly with inevitable, unpredictable, side-effects.
@cstross @Fonant @PeterSommerlad
100% agreed...
The entire bill is totally technically illiterate with all sorts of backfiring fishhooks... embarrasing really.
No idea why Labour feels the need to do this sort of thing.
Worldproof the child, not childproof the world. And parents' responsibility.
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@Fonant @PeterSommerlad @cstross
I doubt that... Or actually... they prob haven't thought about that sort of useful detail.
But just like when your porn account has been age/verified once, you then just "log in" (or carry some kind jwt in a permanent cookie) for subsequent usage.
And yes, if your kid can get access to your computer and log in as you, then all bets are off.
VPNs will likely be similar?
@oschonrock @PeterSommerlad @cstross Yes. They can legislate as much as they want to age-verify all VPN users. Mathematics and logic makes this impossible to enforce in any meaningful way, though.
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@Uilebheist @cstross "I'm an aging router, and I assume responsibility for any outbound packets these young devices connecting to me may send "
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@cstross @Fonant @PeterSommerlad
100% agreed...
The entire bill is totally technically illiterate with all sorts of backfiring fishhooks... embarrasing really.
No idea why Labour feels the need to do this sort of thing.
Worldproof the child, not childproof the world. And parents' responsibility.
@oschonrock @Fonant @PeterSommerlad Labour has a nasty paternalist/nanny state tradition going back over a century. It's baked in at this point: Labour knows what's best for you, peasant. (So do the Tories, but they approach it differently.)
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@oschonrock @Fonant @PeterSommerlad Labour has a nasty paternalist/nanny state tradition going back over a century. It's baked in at this point: Labour knows what's best for you, peasant. (So do the Tories, but they approach it differently.)
@cstross @Fonant @PeterSommerlad
Complex subject.
For example, I would be quite pro a complete twitter ban in EU/UK.
Is that "nanny state", or is that recognising that X is deliberately manipulated to be a malignant anti-democratic cancer?
Porn for kids.... TBH, I get less excited about that, and selective blocking is hard/impractical.
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@cstross @david_chisnall I'm not planning to do anything that would result in the government seizing my computer 🙂
There is no way the government can know whether or not I use a VPN or not, nor whether I use TOR.
Unless the law allows the police to randomly inspect people's computers, and they do this to a significant proportion of the population, I can use any VPN I like without fear. We don't live in a police state yet...
@Fonant @cstross @david_chisnall emphasis on yet. When you go through the U.K. border they can seize for inspection all devices you are carrying, no matter your citizenship.
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RE: https://social.vivaldi.net/@LonM/115966748145817371
UK PEOPLE: this is REALLY IMPORTANT. If the government bans under-16s from using VPNs, then logically they must intend to REQUIRE AGE VERIFICATION FOR ALL VPN USE. Which will affect adults too!
*Your* privacy and right to anonymous web browsing is at risk!
@cstross There's no way they can possibly enforce this for existing VPN users.
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@Fonant @cstross @david_chisnall emphasis on yet. When you go through the U.K. border they can seize for inspection all devices you are carrying, no matter your citizenship.
@Nicovel0 @cstross @david_chisnall Yeah, but I'm not going to be carrying my desktop computer on foreign trips.
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@cstross @Fonant @PeterSommerlad
Complex subject.
For example, I would be quite pro a complete twitter ban in EU/UK.
Is that "nanny state", or is that recognising that X is deliberately manipulated to be a malignant anti-democratic cancer?
Porn for kids.... TBH, I get less excited about that, and selective blocking is hard/impractical.
@oschonrock @cstross @PeterSommerlad A ban on Twitter in the EU would also be impossible to enforce.
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@capriciousday Like banks and other financial institutions who require their employees to use them when working out of the office, or over wifi *within* the office.
@cstross @capriciousday Lawyers likewise. Working at home or in a court building, using confidential & legally privileged data on the office server...
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@cstross @capriciousday Lawyers likewise. Working at home or in a court building, using confidential & legally privileged data on the office server...
@HighlandLawyer @cstross @capriciousday They'll argue that lawyers are over 18 "and why would be a problem to prove that?".
Remember it's the "Labour" party we are talking about. -
@oschonrock @cstross @PeterSommerlad A ban on Twitter in the EU would also be impossible to enforce.
@Fonant @cstross @PeterSommerlad
Yes, I agree that geoblocking would have many holes (vpns, tor, etc), but that is acceptable in this case, IMOBecause the threat that ban would be trying protect against, is serious damage to Europe's democracies. Democracy is a numbers game by definition. So to eliminate a major source of malignant misinformation for say 90% people who can't be bothered to circumvent the geoblock, would destroy the network effect that is so core to any social network's power.
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@oschonrock @Fonant @PeterSommerlad Labour has a nasty paternalist/nanny state tradition going back over a century. It's baked in at this point: Labour knows what's best for you, peasant. (So do the Tories, but they approach it differently.)
@cstross @oschonrock @PeterSommerlad We can happily discuss whether age restrictions on "VPN users" is a Good or Bad idea for a law.
My point is that it's impossible to enforce such a law.
It would be as pointless as the Online Safety Act. Well-intentioned, no doubt, but embarrassing when ignored. The 4chan bulletin board has been fined £20,000 and more for breaching the Online Safety Act. Their response has been "we don't care, we're not complying with a UK law, we're not going to pay any fines". The only thing Ofcom can do is to ask UK ISPs to block access to 4chan. They haven't yet, but if they do it'll be easily bypassed by a VPN or TOR.
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@womble Too true 💯
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So solo che la vita
Jovanotti
https://youtu.be/0UWbe7Lwr5M
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"Put a cute panda on it because there's nothing evil about getting people to use your crappy product by guilt tripping them with a cute mascot."
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@filippodb @sicurezza ciao potresti aggiungermi grazie @Lanfra:Matrix.org
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@heliokor difficile stabilire criteri oggettivi, Ma è chiaro che quella di Rapetto è una provocazione
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I've just unsubscribed from the Mozilla newsletter. That 2025/26 AI Future trash website and it's messaging is disgusting and patronising to all the people that have supported them over the years and do not wish to have anything to do with gen AI.
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Ma voi avete mai trovato un lavoro con Linkedin?
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@errant it's reading "Uncanny Gen-X" to me. Like- the basics elements of that style are there, but it's not put together right. Kind of cold and flat feeling, if that makes sense. @zzt @semievolved
