Hacker News

Mozilla to UK regulators: VPNs are essential privacy and security tools

121 points by WithinReason 3 hours ago | 24 comments

ayashko 6 minutes ago

Something I learned just recently—the Australian government (surprisingly!) actually recommends VPN usage, they even provide a bit of a guide and how to; https://beconnected.esafety.gov.au/topic-library/advanced-on...

borzi 18 minutes ago

That's why the government wants to get rid of them.

badgersnake 2 minutes ago

The UK government does whatever Meta tells them to do. We tax cigarettes because they’re bad for you. Let’s tax algorithmic news feeds.

rvnx 31 minutes ago

Interesting that they mention the UK but forget that the EU also wants to protect the kids by banning VPNs

SiempreViernes 15 minutes ago

So your strategy when you are trying to change someones mind is to mention a lot of other people think like the mind you are trying to change?

Could you explain what is the theory behind that?

violin220 18 minutes ago

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anonymous2024 56 minutes ago

And also VPNs are tools to open doors in the minefield of legislations that they need to create to improve the incoming of some business, not of the people that voted for them.

aboardRat4 11 minutes ago

Didn't people make kinda that huge and broad movement too terminate PIPA and SOPA?

Could you, my wonderful Western friends, do that again?

I mean, all of it is even on video and largely on YouTube.

speedgoose 33 minutes ago

While their arguments are sound, Perhaps Mozilla should disclose in this document that they are also a VPN reseller.

rvnx 28 minutes ago

It would sound like an advertisement though, so in some way it’s better they don’t mention it

robotswantdata 37 minutes ago

1984 was meant to be a warning, not the UK’s digital infrastructure roadmap

iLoveOncall 40 minutes ago

> VPNs are essential privacy tools

Does Mozilla not understand that this is the exact reason why the UK wants to forbid them?

reddalo 24 minutes ago

And that's also the reason why they introduced "age verification". It's not age verification, they couldn't care less about children.

Age verification is just mass surveillance under a fake name.

ogogmad 11 minutes ago

This comment is psychotic. It could be that they're doing something you don't like, while still meaning what they say, and being mistaken about it.

I am getting very intolerant of these conspiratorial comments and the type of people who make them. It's a sign of mental illness or personality disorder, and I don't trust anyone who has got either of those.

auggierose 5 minutes ago

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.

eipi10_hn 3 minutes ago

Your comment is psychotic too.

msuniverse2026 2 hours ago

UK regulators are just hearing another excuse for a loicense.

egamirorrim 53 minutes ago

The UK gov needs to sod off with all this 1984 BS

globular-toast 21 minutes ago

This is a fairly difficult problem. I think the internet should be for adults only, like many other things. But we've fucked up by giving children internet access and it's going to be hard to undo it. I think rather than fighting these measures we need to work on alternatives because keeping children off the internet is a good idea, we just need to implement it in a good way.

What about just banning phones for children? Could we ever make that work? It would be like cigarette bans except we now have 5 year olds addicted to tobacco and addict parents who don't want to make them go cold turkey.

Public libraries and schools can be used for genuine research purposes, but not addictive shit. And implemented ad blockers at the network level.

aboardRat4 14 minutes ago

I had internet since I was a kid. By attacking the internet you are attacking my homeland.

iLoveOncall 16 minutes ago

Or we could realize that there are already 2 generations that grew while having access to the internet and turned out perfectly fine?

ben_w 4 minutes ago

We are many things, but "fine" isn't one of them.

How much the problems today are due to, rather than coincidental with, the internet, is a much more difficult thing to discern.

itsnotchow54 12 minutes ago

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ifwinterco 44 minutes ago

UK is not and has never been a free society, UK elites have an authoritarian streak.

Historically they were fairly smart at doing it subtly but the mask slipped during Covid and they never really put it back on.

Also - outside the HN bubble this stuff isn’t even unpopular. Normies supported covid lockdowns and they don’t want their kids watching porn either.

The people yearn to be ruled and nannied

budududuroiu 26 minutes ago

I've heard people on HN make the argument that a blanket ban is better because their kids won't feel it's unfair that only their family implements strict internet blocks

itsnotchow54 16 minutes ago

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pibaker 19 minutes ago

> Also - outside the HN bubble this stuff isn’t even unpopular.

This stuff wasn't unpopular on HN until it actually happened. Almost every submission on HN about social media had people calling for similar regulations or even outright bans. It was not until they actually started asking for IDs when HNers realized what they really wanted to achieve with these laws.

itsnotchow54 21 minutes ago

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violin220 19 minutes ago

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