Online Safety Bill Etc

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

American Government advises people to stop using personal VPN's:

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-pr...-personal-vpns

Well what else did you expect, they cannot track you when your using a vpn. The British government has found out that to there cost. The Online Safety Bill has created a massive issue for the UK government with the increase in VPN's. People don't want to be tracked and forced to verify there age with unknown companies.

BTW i see 4chan have still not paid a fine and will not be. I believe a freedom of information request has been submitted to Ofcom requesting information on how many fines have been submitted, how many have been paid and how many have been ignored.

It will be interesting to see the results of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2biDMArnio

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Sirius

Well what else did you expect, they cannot track you when your using a vpn. The British government has found out that to there cost. The Online Safety Bill has created a massive issue for the UK government with the increase in VPN's. People don't want to be tracked and forced to verify there age with unknown companies.

BTW i see 4chan have still not paid a fine and will not be. I believe a freedom of information request has been submitted to Ofcom requesting information on how many fines have been submitted, how many have been paid and how many have been ignored.

It will be interesting to see the results of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2biDMArnio

A total of 61 companies are being investigated for non compliance. Of those concluded, one paid the fine, the one you mention is refusing to pay it and one that encourages suicide agreed to block UK users. Unfortunately, after a while they switched the UK back on and Ofcom had to speak to them again with a warning that they will be keeping a close eye on them.

I agree, it will be interesting to see what happens.

Do you think that this is scaremongering by the American Government to try and curtail the use of VPN's?

[Carth]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

<snipetty snip>

Do you think that this is scaremongering by the American Government to try and curtail the use of VPN's?

Remember an old saying "knowledge is power" . . which in todays world means the more data you can collect (harvest), the more power you have to do . . . well, whatever you want, with any demographic you want.

Quite obviously if everyone starts using a VPN, the ability to track, trace and collect the data required for World Domination then becomes a huge concern for those doing so . . . and so begins the push to outlaw them

[jem]

Now although it is understandable that some will crash in with the obvious ‘conspiracy theory', argument that this is some devious ploy to stop people using VPNs, naturally the advice is more nuanced than can seem at first.

I do trust that everyone commenting on this has followed the link provided and read the entire article, something I try to do before posting, always best to have facts on your side when making an argument.

Now what the CISA advice said was that “personal VPNs simply shift residual risks from the internet service provider (ISP) to the VPN provider, often increasing the attack surface.”

And as the article itself says; "However, as CISA's advice implies, the rush for a quick privacy fix can lead users to download dubious apps that are, at best, ineffective and, at worst, outright spyware."

At best a VPN will hide what you are doing from your own ISP, but hand over all of this information to whoever controls the other end of the VPN tunnel, who could be....?

The article is simply pointing out that just jumping on the VPN bandwagon without actually understanding what they are, how they work and what they can and can’t do - can actually decrease a users privacy. I’ve lost count of the number of posts in the past on this and other forums with users saying ‘I always use a VPN for extra security’; no, not necessarily, no!

Ironically the OSA is a prime example of the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Although I’m sure most people would agree that there is content unsuitable for children and there should be some guardrails in place; but demanding they hand over personal information to some random third party to prove their age, is a step too far, and they will go to considerable lengths to bypass it.

Alas, these lengths can often involve downloading ‘random malware ridden widget A’ and installing it with no thought about what else it might be doing. And that’s the crux of the recommendation.

Of course this is the same CISA who only a month ago was recommending that users don’t use simple text messages as they are too easy to intercept, but instead only use encrypted systems.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...messaging.html

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by jem

Now although it is understandable that some will crash in with the obvious ‘conspiracy theory', argument that this is some devious ploy to stop people using VPNs, naturally the advice is more nuanced than can seem at first.

I do trust that everyone commenting on this has followed the link provided and read the entire article, something I try to do before posting, always best to have facts on your side when making an argument.

Now what the CISA advice said was that “personal VPNs simply shift residual risks from the internet service provider (ISP) to the VPN provider, often increasing the attack surface.”

And as the article itself says; "However, as CISA's advice implies, the rush for a quick privacy fix can lead users to download dubious apps that are, at best, ineffective and, at worst, outright spyware."

At best a VPN will hide what you are doing from your own ISP, but hand over all of this information to whoever controls the other end of the VPN tunnel, who could be....?

The article is simply pointing out that just jumping on the VPN bandwagon without actually understanding what they are, how they work and what they can and can’t do - can actually decrease a users privacy. I’ve lost count of the number of posts in the past on this and other forums with users saying ‘I always use a VPN for extra security’; no, not necessarily, no!

Ironically the OSA is a prime example of the ‘law of unintended consequences’. Although I’m sure most people would agree that there is content unsuitable for children and there should be some guardrails in place; but demanding they hand over personal information to some random third party to prove their age, is a step too far, and they will go to considerable lengths to bypass it.

Alas, these lengths can often involve downloading ‘random malware ridden widget A’ and installing it with no thought about what else it might be doing. And that’s the crux of the recommendation.

Of course this is the same CISA who only a month ago was recommending that users don’t use simple text messages as they are too easy to intercept, but instead only use encrypted systems.

https://www.computerworld.com/articl...messaging.html

What a sensible and well considered post.

[thenry]

Australia's prime minister has warned that implementing the country's new social media ban for children under 16 – which came into force on Wednesday - will be difficult.

https://news.sky.com/story/australia...a-ban-13481680

well done for attempting at least to protect it's citizens. The online filtering isn't working obviously

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by thenry

well done for attempting at least to protect it's citizens. The online filtering isn't working obviously

Soon these under 16 year olds will be voters and then it's payback time

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by thenry

well done for attempting at least to protect it's citizens. The online filtering isn't working obviously

According to the BBC news, many countries have considered this and are watching closely after Australia was the first to do it. They went on to say that there have been calls to strengthen the Online Safety Act as, now that Australia has gone ahead and done this, it is falling behind.

---------- Post added at 00:42 ---------- Previous post was at 00:26 ----------

Originally Posted by Paul

Sounds a bit like blustering to me, the point of VPNs is they are private, you cant just "monitor" them.

Since my earlier post, this has come to light about the monitoring of VPN's:

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-pr...ine-safety-act

Again, nothing at all about monitoring VPNs, because you cant.
There are just picking numbers from a company whose job is to make up numbers and convince you they are right.

The best part of that article was near the bottom ...
"Today's best NordVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN deals"

No matter what their blustering, they know the majority of voters use VPNs, as well as any IT related home working. Going after them would be political suicide.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Paul

Again, nothing at all about monitoring VPNs, because you cant.
There are just picking numbers from a company whose job is to make up numbers and convince you they are right.

The best part of that article was near the bottom ...
"Today's best NordVPN, Surfshark and Proton VPN deals"

No matter what their blustering, they know the majority of voters use VPNs, as well as any IT related home working. Going after them would be political suicide.

Thought you might have heard of Apptopia, SimilarWeb, and Ipsos Iris (I haven't).

Yes, the irony of advertising VPN's at the bottom wasn't lost on me

[damien c]

Well this clown show of a government get even better and the clueless "BARONESS BARRAN".

They are trying to backdoor ban VPN's!!, but only for people under 18, won't be long though before that age increases.

They are not looking though to do it in the open and instead trying to do it via the backdoor by attaching a single clause to bill that will more than likely just get approved with no real looking at.

https://bills.parliament.uk/publicat...spdhGirKYkiSzw

Clause 27 just read on from there (page 19 is the main part).

What the clueless clowns want, is for you to have to provide ID/Age Scan when you sign up to a VPN Provider, then when you download it, you will need to provide ID/Age Scan and the same every time you want to connect to said VPN, you will be required to provide a new scan of your ID/Age Scan.

Now because most VPN's do not collect information to "Monitor" what they want, it will mean that VPN providers will have to start collecting/monitoring and storing information, doing exactly what a VPN is used to avoid.

Wonder how that is going to work when a school kid needs to connect to a VPN do a school class from home?

They are also apparently going to look to have a database created with all the childrens names and relevant information including a photo to be updated every 6 months to 12 months, and any site that does Age Scans must, scan that database to see if there is a match so that they can ensure that no child's image is used, but in reality they are just creating a peodophiles wet dream of information.

All I can think is that Labours funders must be getting a way with a hell of lot, to continue to fund them!

[Carth]

Labour, the party of very big sticks and no carrots

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Carth

Labour, the party of very big sticks and no carrots

did you mean to say sticks or something that rhymes with sticks