Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

Well thanks, that explains everything to those of us who don't read all the nonsense on Twitter and Farcebook :D

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

Not on Twitter, and have tight Privacy Settings on FB - only Family & Friends.

I read about TDS in the Washington Post…

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

i thought sds was a drill,but it seems it's smurf derangement syndrome :)

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

Never trust people that talk in acronyms, if they are even slightly dyslexic it can cause all sorts of problems :D

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

QFT. :erm:

:D

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

"Almighty Dog, we confess our sins..."

Ya I guess you do have a good point mate!

Quite a g00d point!!

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

It's now estimated that 85% of those now banned from using social media in Australia are still doing so.

Restricting access to VPN's appears to be the next logical step by politicians. There is talk that there will be some exemptions in the UK, the legislation includes explicit exemptions for corporate networks, business-grade remote access solutions, and adult users.

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

Tell me, how do they 'restrict access' to VPN's without causing a shit storm of legal battles with those who are selling them?

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

I suppose any country can ban goods & services in their jurisdiction, even if they are legal elsewhere.

Someone could legally buy cannabis in some places in the world, but this wouldn't make a jot of diffence to our customs officers!

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

Yes, of course they can, but VPN is a technology, it doesn’t really equate to goods or services. Right now, I am sitting on the outside terrace of a wine bar, overlooking a lake whilst connected via a VPN to one of my client’s network and fixing an issue with their backup system.

Yes any proposed ‘ban’ or ‘restrictions’ on VPNs will absolutely need massive exemptions otherwise, kiss goodbye to any sort of remote working, plus a mass exodus of companies from the UK. And I can promise that these legal exemptions will be so wide that anyone could drive a proverbial ‘coach and horses’ through them. In effect they will achieve nothing.

Some internet browsers, cough, Opera, cough, have a built-in, sort-of VPN - actually it’s not a VPN more of a remote proxy. Is use of this browser to be banned? How? Using Opera, it currently thinks I am in Norway (tomorrow, I’ll be somewhere else - possibly Belgium), I’ll browse to a porn site. Does it demand proof of my age? No it doesn’t, because, apparently, I’m not in the UK.

Everything eventually comes down to everyone has to prove who they are and prove they are over 18 by handing over personal information. This is not good!

You said yourself that apparently 85% of Australian under age people were still using social media (citation needed, as the last I heard it was more like 70%), which says what? Bans simply don’t work, they never have and never will*.

Now here’s a thought, what is it that we are trying to achieve, is it to protect young people from harm? Which is an admirable aim, fine. Do you try to ban the ’source of harm’, or maybe spend money in education, educate young people to identify what is wrong, if it ‘feels’ wrong to you, it probably is, move on! Encourage young people to discuss what they encounter with their parents**, or teachers, or even their friends and peers.

Education is going to be vastly more effective then legislation.

* see prohibition in the US. That worked well didn’t it?
** and yes I know some parents should never have been allowed to have children, but it is what it is.

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

I think of VPN's as a service that's provided.

The Australian figure increased to 85% and was reported by various places, this is just one of them:

https://news.sky.com/story/worrying-...agers-13557426

It'll be interesting to see what happens with VPN's, this is the bill if you want to see if you'll be affected:

https://publications.parliament.uk/p...n/240383en.pdf

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

If you all have not figured out what Labour are up to read this book

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

which allegedly is required reading if you are a Labour member

As for a VPN ban the only people this will affect are those that have no technical ability, anyone else will know how to get around it, in other words a complete waste of tax payers money that will be used to implement it.

They were unable to enforce a mandatory ID card to harvest peoples data so they are doing it through the back door with age varification.

We will all be living in the UK version of North Korea soon

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

and those people who ever they are will gladly share their knowledge with others as vlad putin is finding with his vpn crackdown in russia

Re: Online Safety Bill Etc
 

So this is the part of the "Spying, Tracking & Restriction" BS bill about VPN's.

Lords Amendment to insert New Clause after Clause 26:
Action to prohibit the provision of VPN services to children in the United
Kingdom.

Lords Amendments 37*

59 Lords Amendment 37 would require providers of virtual private network (VPN) services to
prohibit children in the UK from accessing their services. Subsection (1) would place a duty
on the Secretary of State to make these regulations within 12 months of this Act being passed.

60 Subsection (2) explains that the regulations (a) may require VPN services to apply highly
effective age assurance to determine whether a user accessing their service is a child, and (b)
must apply the prohibition to any VPN service that is or is likely to be offered or marketed to
people in the UK, or which is provided to a significant number of persons.

61 Subsection (2)(c) would require the regulations to include provision for the monitoring and
effective enforcement of the prohibition.

62 Subsection (3) would allow Ofcom to produce guidance to assist VPN providers in complying
with the prohibition.

63 Subsection (4) would make the power to make regulations subject to the affirmative
procedure.

64 Subsection (5) defines key terms used in the amendment.


So for "59" that would require all VPN providers start to collect age information, which means they have to use the likes of Yoti unless they implement their own, Yoti the company who is currently appealing a lawsuit where they have been found guilty of misusing people's data.

That would be something that VPN's are as far as I am aware staunchly against because what does the "P" stand for, oh wait "Private" so by forcing age information to be collected you remove the privacy of users.


For "60" See my response for "59" but also add in, a complete mass exodus of VPN providers and business's from the UK regardless of if you put in a exclusion for business users and a mass increase in VPN's created by the likes of Russia and China all designed at scaping as much data as possible once installed, including recording your microphone and camera, it would collect so much data even the UK Government would be jealous.


"61" this would require VPN Providers to start keeping log's, something that the vast majority do not do and any that are concerned with privacy are unable to do since they use Ram Disk's and not HDD's or SSD's and as such it would require a complete rebuild of the VPN Network, Servers and Software, something the VPN Providers will not do.



Now as it comes to "Well they can just make a legal exception for business users" well ok, I should create a company for my YouTube channels, hey presto I now qualify for the ability to use a VPN as I need to send video files from my pc to another person, I then say to my dad "hey you are technically my volunteer editor, so I need to send you some video files, we need a vpn" doesn't matter if we are in the same house on the same network, networks can be hacked, so I need protection for my network.

I sign up to a VPN, automatically because of their policies and features, I can add either unlimited number of devices or a specific limit, I then allow my dad to use it, my mum, my brother, my sister, their partners, their kids and hey presto all of us are using a VPN and no more data collecting and spying on our devices by the UK Government.