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Wisconsin VPN bill is 'going to be a disaster for everyone,' says online privacy nonprofit (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 1 week ago by cm0002@toast.ooo to c/privacy@programming.dev

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Due to the UK's Online Safety Act implemented earlier this year, accessing my Bluesky DM's now means I need to allow a third-party service to scan my face, ID, or bank card. Understandably, that gives me the willies. So I can either simply never look at my messages again, whip out the likeness of Norman Reedus, OR I can log on via a VPN. However, the days of this vastly preferable third option may be numbered.

US states Wisconsin and Michigan have already proposed VPN crackdown bills aiming to close off this workaround—and the UK may be looking to follow suit. Online privacy nonprofit the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently criticised this strategy, taking aim at Wisconsin's bill in particular, saying that blocking the use of VPNs is "going to be a disaster for everyone."

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[–] Syun@retrolemmy.com 4 points 1 week ago

The UK was the first one to this particular bag of shit. There was a British MP, whose name I forget, who retired from Parliament having sunk a bunch of money into investing in the UK's chosen third party service, run by his friends, and IIRC wrote the bill so that it would go into effect long enough after he quit that he wouldn't technically run afoul of corruption laws. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and I'm sick that this crap is creeping into the US as well.

So anyway, here's a great usecase for generative AI to game this fucked up system with pictures of nobody.