Hacker News

Toronto-Based VPN Provider Plans to Quit Canada over Lawful-Access Bill

53 points by speckx 4 hours ago | 18 comments

iamnothere 19 minutes ago

I’m more concerned about OpenBSD. Given how centralized the project governance is, and its base in Canada, I can imagine the government attempting to (for example) force the project to serve backdoored images or updates to targeted people. A backdoor or bugdoor in the source would probably be spotted by someone, and I’m not even sure the bill allows a broad tool like that, but that’s not the only way to compromise software users.

Fortunately the mirrors are distributed, so maybe that reduces the risk.

LorenDB 2 hours ago

Problem is, where do you take a company like this if you want peace of mind that the new host country won't immediately try to pass a similar law?

browningstreet 18 minutes ago

I've been working through my options per digital freedom, human dignity, and non-double-taxation as a US citizen. It's a depressingly short list.

recursive 2 hours ago

The real use case for satellite-borne data centers.

armadyl 2 hours ago

I fail to see how a satellite data center would fix this unless the company was entirely off planet

recursive 2 hours ago

Hell, the whole company could be located on that satellite if it transacts in crypto-currency.

bluGill 30 minutes ago

Despite the hype, crypto is traceable. It is harder than other currencies and one transaction is probably untraceable. However if you are running a business you are going to get repeated payments from customers and repeatedly pay your employees and suppliers, which in turn creates enough data that they can track you down.

blakeashleyjr 25 minutes ago

Mullvad accepts Monero (XMR), the most private and untraceable coin available today. Your point is correct for all others though.

dymk 59 minutes ago

Where do the people live…

camkego 26 minutes ago

How has no one mentioned the Sealand micro nation off the UK?

mig39 31 minutes ago

How does Mullvad do it? They also have Canadian servers.

MrDrMcCoy 2 hours ago

Iceland.

armadyl 2 hours ago

Switzerland? Although they’re attempting to close in on this there too.

petcat 51 minutes ago

Didn't proton end up moving to Germany because of bad Swiss privacy laws?

singpolyma3 18 minutes ago

Didn't this bill get amended to clarify that no encryption back doors are required?

EmbarrassedHelp 7 minutes ago

It was amended to make them less likely, but even the Liberals are saying that it can still be used to target encryption.

And the legislation still requires mandatory data retention and interception capabilities for all VPNs, encrypted messaging services, and every other online service.

elmer2 30 minutes ago

Why don't people ever realize that the more Liberal a government is, the more control they will demand from our lives.

nxm 29 minutes ago

They sell "give us more power, we'll protect you" well