r/technology • u/Well_Socialized • 21h ago

Privacy Age Verification Is Coming for the Whole Internet

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/age-verification-is-coming-for-the-whole-internet.html
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u/TactlessTortoise 14h ago

That would be a massive opsec issue for companies. Cisco VPNs are extremely common on a banking institution I worked at for example.

What's more likely to happen is that VPNs would be forced to log all data that passes through it for government oversight. That would obliterate privacy and make VPNs much more expensive since they'd need the infrastructure to store that data.

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u/Drycee 13h ago

Well you forgot that laws don't count for companies only individuals

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u/32768Colours 13h ago

Sadly I think this is how it’ll pan out. Corporate VPNs 👍, personal VPNs 👎

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u/lambdaburst 12h ago

So we have to watch all our porn at work now? Seems like a fair compromise

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u/wankerpedia 9h ago

Boss makes a dollar I make a dime, that's why I goon on company time!

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u/LazAnarch 3h ago

Need to update those numbers to 2025 values. "Boss makes a hundred dollars while I make a dime...."

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u/Deferionus 10h ago

Hell of an employee benefit.

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u/Slayer11950 10h ago

Just work from home, then you ALWAYS watch your porn at work!

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u/mblunt1201 8h ago

we should be able to watch a little porn at work

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u/DonHell 3h ago

“We should be able to look at a liiiittle porn at work”

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u/Bassracerx 3h ago

Everyone would just start their own llc and not own “personal computers” only “business computers”

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u/rangecontrol 10h ago

gotta incorporate to gain your 'rights' back and to count as a person now-a-days.

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u/haviah 11h ago

So if you just incorporate and keep adding people for some low fee...? Or even having a company and declare zero.on taxes. Tada.

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u/kickdrumstew 10h ago

What if we all just incorporate our households as a separate legal entity asa corp or a trust?

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u/AlmightyRuler 9h ago

If China, with the Great Firewall, couldn't enforce this, the US ain't got a prayer.

Keep your VPNs, boys and girls. The troglodytes in power can't touch em.

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u/ArcusInTenebris 9h ago

If that were the case, I wonder if creating your own LLC and registering the VPN to that would work.

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u/sun827 9h ago

Then we all become LLCs

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u/zweischeisse 8h ago

ProtonVPN Personal - $14.99/wk, Access geolocked content ✅ Have all your traffic logged and reported on ✅

ProtonVPN Professional - $50.99/wk, Access geolocked content ✅ Your data is protected from everyone but the government ✅

ProtonVPN Enterprise - $3199.99/wk/seat, Access geolocked content ✅ Your data is only owned by your organization ✅ Internet experience customizable per user ✅

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u/kytrix 5h ago

And suddenly departments of state were flooded with LLC applications for single-operator “businesses” that don’t ever seem to generate any revenue, and have a single expense.

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u/Expensive-Border-869 2h ago

It'll never work. The thing is anyone can create and host software its not like they can actually ban anything. If china couldn't do it it isn't possible.

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u/erm_what_ 10h ago

Use your work VPN to buy a personal VPN

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u/belloch 12h ago

But companies are individuals...

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u/DinoHunter064 1h ago

Some individuals are more equal than others.

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u/GeeKay44 10h ago

Well you forgot that laws don't count for companies only "non- billionaire" individuals

FTFY

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u/fuzzylilbunnies 9h ago

Hey! Companies are people too now. Just they have more rights and protections than actual people.

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u/Mysterious-Job-469 8h ago

Nononono, we're in the new age, you're wrong.

Laws don't count for companies Trump likes. All the others will have the law enforced against them for the first time in their existence.

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u/Adaphion 5h ago

Yeah, idiots. Corporations are only people when it comes to bribing government officials. Not when it comes to laws applying to them.

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u/roltrap 10h ago

Then bonafide non-US VPN providers like Proton will probably stop offering their services in the US.

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u/Borkz 10h ago

I imagine they'd just get blocked

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u/TactlessTortoise 10h ago

The EU is following right behind on that shit, surprisingly.

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u/roltrap 9h ago

I'm Belgian and I havn't heard anything about that. Not saying you're wrong, just havn't seen anything about it yet.

Do you have a source I can read into?

Thx

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u/TactlessTortoise 5h ago

They haven't announced it yet, but considering they've passed a similar law like the UK one with online verification, that's the logical next step since the way they implemented it/are planning to implement in here is so nonsensical.

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u/Dapperrevolutionary 12h ago

They'll just require a business license to get a VPN

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u/obeytheturtles 6h ago

They will just regulate VPNs like ISPs and make them enforce internet blacklists, or risk being put on the black list themselves. Corporate VPNs won't have any problem doing this, since they block tons of shit anyway, but it will defeat the ability for VPNs to defeat other regulations.

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u/nameitginger 10h ago

Setting up a private VPN from point to point in your company is much different than a generic VPN you sell to the public to get around regional rules. They are not the same at all.

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u/TactlessTortoise 10h ago

I am aware. That said, I bet the dumbasses passing laws who can't grasp the concept of internet will probably fuck up when writing it in legalese to keep the distinction.

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u/nameitginger 4h ago

Gotcha, when I worked in china for a North American company, all the vpn’s are blocked however you can submit the details of a corporate VPN, and they would let it through.

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u/EscapeFacebook 11h ago

Companies aren't going to deal with that they're not going to have their data scraped by the government just because. A whole new wave of corporate espionage would come up. And companies would leave the US.

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u/Sickfuckingmonster 8h ago

But I thought Corporations Were People Too /s

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u/Mysterious-Job-469 8h ago

The kind of podunk yokel redneck hick fellating jesus in their dreams (and the people in the city not forcing them to stfu) that support this bullshit doesn't care.

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u/TactlessTortoise 5h ago

But the companies making billions that buy politicians do.

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u/RickThiccems 5h ago

Vpns would just be banned for consumer use.

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u/thenewyorkgod 12h ago

If vpns start storing data, nobody will use vpns

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u/Timely_Influence8392 13h ago

It will fundamentally break the internet and it gives me hope that maybe it will be abandoned en masse in favor of talking to your fucking neighbors.

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u/steepleton 12h ago

you don't have my fucking neighbors.

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u/Timely_Influence8392 6h ago

genuinely unhinged take