I don’t know if you’re familiar with how VPNs work, but it’s basically like a computer in the other country is sharing its internet connection with you.
So let’s imagine that things are reversed, and you’re a VPN provider in the United States and you’re sharing your internet connection with some computers in another country, like Saudi Arabia, for example.
And just to be clear, you conduct no business in Saudi Arabia. You’re just sharing your internet connection with people from there. You don’t have any associates in Saudi Arabia, and you have no intention of ever going to Saudi Arabia.
And let’s say that Saudi Arabia passed a law that said VPN providers had to block some kind of content, like maybe banning all access to content about your favorite band.
How is this going to affect the VPN service you provide to the other computers?
It wouldn’t, which is why I roll my eyes every time I see a bill demanding what a VPN must do.
The only way for them to actually enforce this through VPNs is to block VPNs. Which, presumably, they’ll do at some point, but with an exception list for companies paying the right license fee to use a Government Approved VPN.
Which, obviously, will be full of security flaws, and likely won’t be HIPPA compliant or other compliances etc, etc.
There are ways to obfuscate VPN traffic that’s resistant to DPI. It makes it look like normal HTTPS traffic. That will make completely blocking VPNs difficult. I’m sure even more effective obfuscation methods will be developed if VPN blocking becomes widespread.
You VPN into Canada and then sign onto another VPN from there? Would that work?
Hell, depending on how the law is written and how clever the lawyers are, the VPN can ship you out to Canada, then connect you back to the network via an authentication token that verifies you are a member of the service without verifying your country of origin.
Or … time to set my VPN to Canada.
I think the intent of the law is that it wouldn’t mater. If the VPN blocks the site, you can’t get to the site.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with how VPNs work, but it’s basically like a computer in the other country is sharing its internet connection with you.
So let’s imagine that things are reversed, and you’re a VPN provider in the United States and you’re sharing your internet connection with some computers in another country, like Saudi Arabia, for example.
And just to be clear, you conduct no business in Saudi Arabia. You’re just sharing your internet connection with people from there. You don’t have any associates in Saudi Arabia, and you have no intention of ever going to Saudi Arabia.
And let’s say that Saudi Arabia passed a law that said VPN providers had to block some kind of content, like maybe banning all access to content about your favorite band.
How is this going to affect the VPN service you provide to the other computers?
Why would a Canadian VPN server obey US block lists?
It wouldn’t, which is why I roll my eyes every time I see a bill demanding what a VPN must do.
The only way for them to actually enforce this through VPNs is to block VPNs. Which, presumably, they’ll do at some point, but with an exception list for companies paying the right license fee to use a Government Approved VPN.
Which, obviously, will be full of security flaws, and likely won’t be HIPPA compliant or other compliances etc, etc.
There are ways to obfuscate VPN traffic that’s resistant to DPI. It makes it look like normal HTTPS traffic. That will make completely blocking VPNs difficult. I’m sure even more effective obfuscation methods will be developed if VPN blocking becomes widespread.
So, basically there’s the internet, then there’s the US internet. People will start moving to China for more freedoms.
Did you forget about the Great Firewall?
Not that even it can defeat VPNs anyway.
You VPN into Canada and then sign onto another VPN from there? Would that work?
Hell, depending on how the law is written and how clever the lawyers are, the VPN can ship you out to Canada, then connect you back to the network via an authentication token that verifies you are a member of the service without verifying your country of origin.
…where are you from?
Wrong question these days.
I forgot…
A/S/L?
Well, based on what he said, he’s wrong.
Unless he’s not from the usa. So before I pointed out the flaw in his plan, I want to make sure I’M not wrong.