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

submitted 1 month 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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[–] Scoopta@programming.dev 37 points 1 month ago (13 children)

I do wonder how they're going to even try to enforce this. VPNs aren't exactly blockable without a great firewall type apparatus. If they block major providers then you can just setup your own, and if they block VPN protocols outright then it ranges from ineffective to outright destroying the internet. I just don't really get how this is going to work practically. Which is good... hopefully it doesn't pass though.

[–] Jason2357@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

The way I understand it, any company wanting to do business in the state would have to block access to their services from (anonymous?) VPN providers. That means IP blocks for PIA, mollivard, etc will be blacklisted by companies. There are already blocklists of IPs for VPN providers that many corporate web filters use (yes, they are terrible and inaccurate).

Yes, you would probably be able to fire up a VPS from a no-name provider and get through. However,

a) that option isn't really available to 99% of the tech-illiterate public,
b) a lot of sites already have issues with non-residential IP blocks, especially AWS, and
c) that usually means there is a 1:1 mapping between your IP address and your identity (often a credit card). Which is what they want.

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