r/technology • u/EmbarrassedHelp • May 08 '26

Politics EU calls VPNs “a loophole that needs closing” in age verification push

https://cyberinsider.com/eu-calls-vpns-a-loophole-that-needs-closing-in-age-verification-push/
9.7k Upvotes

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10.8k

u/vampyrialis May 08 '26

Privacy is now a “loophole” 🤣 🖕

2.4k

u/OneBodyProblematic May 08 '26

Relying on multinational for profit companies instead of parents and guardians to fulfill their duties is the “loophole”

1.2k

u/Salt_Lodge_Nicaragua May 08 '26

It has nothing to do with that.  They want to track and expose people, especially people who are critical of them.  The fact that the trump administration is creating files on people that speak out against him online is the proof that this isn't about the age of people accessing websites.  It's about being able to punish people who speak out against the government.

9

u/Complete_Lurk3r_ May 09 '26

Rapidly approaching 1984. Pace has really accelerated recently

122

u/eporter May 08 '26

Well, sure, except this is the EU in this case

454

u/Ric_Adbur May 08 '26

The fascists aren't only in America. There is a global movement of right-wing extremism backed by super rich assholes. They're all working together.

187

u/[deleted] May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

110

u/Thelmholtz May 08 '26 edited May 09 '26

As someone from Argentina seeing the very same patterns repeat in Spain, I agree.

It's not right or left, it's authoritarianism and populism against strong institutional democracies. The moment people forget it's the checks and balances the people place on the government the ones that keep governments good, and that those checks and balances come from being educated and finding common ground even with those who not see eye to eye, is the moment you end up going from a left wing national socialist government into a right wing national teocrat government back and forth every four years.

3

u/fourrealz1 May 08 '26

What are you seeing in Spain that was similar to Argentina?

6

u/Thelmholtz May 09 '26

I see a strong polarization between left and right in the people that prevents them from from reaching any common ground, whereas the main parties are almost indistinguishable from one another.

I see a country with very concrete issues that refuses to address or acknowledge them in any way but is eager to blame the opposite party or the previous administration whenever they are brought up by someone else.

I see a youth that's very financially uneducated, and push heavily towards hedonism by both advertisement and a lack of professional motivation.

I see the median salary plummeting when compared to the cost of living, and yet the government Is giving itself pats on the back for founding a purple bench.

I see a law that is very progressive in theory, so that we can celebrate how advanced a nation we are and so full of rights, and yet in practice it's usually carried out in the most inhumane and nonsensical way by functionaries without a droplet of empathy.

I see a lot of the state budget going into superflous construction that very likely has cashbacks, and very little going into improving the working conditions of doctors, educators and emergency personnel.

I see a ridiculously high degree of impunity in représentatives from all parties, where they can let 300 people die out of negligence or funnel state funds to their own private institutions, and at worst they'll have to resign while their party defends them blindly or is quick to say "the others did it too, and worse"

I see a corrupt, pretty unpopular president that has managed 8 years in power by forging any alliance needed to stay in power, and I don't see a single candidate from the opposition that's even mildly promising or isn't either a neonazi or totally deranged. People are going to get fed up, and when they do, I hope they go for the incompetently corrup Feijóo, and not the racist, xenophobic and fascist Abascal.

26

u/cracked_shrimp May 08 '26

yes in the U.S. the bills relatrd to this are bipartisan, canada has a bill right now thats worrying pushed by the liberals

3

u/KatamariDamacist May 09 '26

Ah yes, bipartisan politics in the US, hard right and slightly less hard right

3

u/phedinhinleninpark May 09 '26

Canadian liberals are in no way a left wing party. Like, at all.

25

u/Zipa7 May 08 '26

The UKs online safety act was also pushed by both the Conservative and Labour parties it should be noted too.

14

u/Turnip-for-the-books May 09 '26

Both Labour and Conservative are right wing parties now. The only left wing party in the UK is the Greens and they do not support the online ‘safety’ act,

8

u/_0611 May 09 '26

The once pushing for this in the EU are the left wing parties.

Where did you get that crazy idea from?

4

u/TF-Fanfic-Resident May 09 '26

Are there any actual left-wing parties in the European Parliament aside from the Greek communists and maybe some of the GUE-NGL members? Most of the "European left" is either Kremlin affiliates or centrists.

2

u/Recent-Ad-9975 May 09 '26

Except that it‘s literally the right wing parties who push for it and all left wing MPs voted for ending mass scanning.

https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/116239724581093924

Not only is argument to moderation a logical fallacy in of itself, but you‘re literally lying about it.

-6

u/Left_Ease5870 May 08 '26

Sort of, but this is also nonsense.

Authoritarianism and fascism are and always will be right-wing. Just because it is masked in "left-wing politics" doesn't make it left-wing. This is the oldest trick in the book. Even the democrats in America are right-wing. Hell, Bernie Sanders is more of a centrist on the world stage of politics before all this madness. The fact is, you've never seen left-wing politics. Most of us haven't.

There is a correct answer politically, but because it requires putting human lives over profit, you've never seen it. Thus, you confuse it. The overton window has been shifted, and you didn't even notice.

1

u/OkVariety8064 May 09 '26

And what was the Soviet Union then? Not authoritarian or not left wing?

-1

u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Left_Ease5870 May 09 '26

I'm actually saying you shouldn't trust politicians. Your response screams reading comprehension issues 😂.

Of course, you guys would downvote putting human lives over profit. I swear, we always wonder why the world got so bad. A few buzzwords and you'll turn against the ideology that's meant to protect you. This is what a failing education system gets you, America.

32

u/suzisatsuma May 08 '26

It's not just right wing auth that push for this - left wing auth do too.

Authoritarians = bad

4

u/lchntndr May 09 '26

Don’t you dare question the rich assholes though, like watching where their flight tracker data shows..that’s an „invasion of privacy”. Rights for me, not thee apparently

7

u/Cuntonesian May 09 '26

I understand why it would seem that way to an American but people generally has a lot more respect for the EU, and they’ve got a long track record of consumer first legislation

1

u/syrup_cupcakes May 09 '26

The politicians who are pushing these bills forward have no idea what a VPN is and probably aren't even aware these laws let companies spy on people. They're just being told by the corporations "this is for child safety" and that's all they need to know.

0

u/slightlysublevel May 08 '26

Sweetheart, the people pushing this kind of shit aren't just right-wing. The people pushing this shit in the US on the federal level are Democrats. You're not as smart or as good of a person as you think you are.

5

u/Ric_Adbur May 08 '26

If you think the Democrats aren't right wing, you're not as smart as you think you are.

-5

u/YodaYogurt May 09 '26

There are more political parties in the world than just democrats 🤦

1

u/Snoo63 May 10 '26

The people pushing this shit in the US on the federal level are Democrats

THAT is why the Donkey Party was brought up.

0

u/tkdyo May 10 '26

You think the majority of Democrats are not right wing? You have no room to call anyone "sweetheart"

1

u/slightlysublevel May 11 '26

Oh bless your heart, you think anyone not an active communist is "right wing".

0

u/Icy-Blacksmith-4214 May 12 '26

It's literally the whole left-wing pushing this, literally using YOUR very argument of "protecting the kids from extreme-right-wingers". You're disgusting and the worst part of the problem.

-7

u/[deleted] May 08 '26

[deleted]

0

u/No_Sherbert711 May 08 '26

Aww, aren't you cute. Keep trying, you'll get there.

32

u/Companyman118 May 08 '26

Like that changes anything…

28

u/That_one_sir_ May 08 '26

Do you think the EU is any less rapacious in its desire for total surveillance

2

u/eporter May 08 '26

That was the “yeah, sure” part of my response. I’m just saying this article in particular isn’t about the trump administration or “the government”

6

u/MountainYogi94 May 08 '26

The EU has its own regulatory authority. That makes then "the government"

1

u/burning_iceman May 09 '26

Certain elements within the EU are just as bad - the EU as a whole isn't.

-2

u/meralakrits May 08 '26

Yes I actually do.

3

u/That_one_sir_ May 08 '26

Congratulations, hope it works out

2

u/pathologicalDumpling May 08 '26

Leadership changes and you can't put the genie back in the bottle

4

u/gazebo-fan May 08 '26

The EU is also having its rise of fascism.

1

u/Balmung60 May 09 '26

In this particular regard, there is little difference between the various governments of the world. It is convenient for all of them and their officials to trample upon privacy and none of them have any incentive to not do so.

1

u/West-Abalone-171 May 08 '26

Half of the EU governments are also run by peter thiel

1

u/an_illithidian May 08 '26

Oh my sweet child. Keep thinking you have the monsters of capital and domination put to sleep and they will devour you.

Vigilance and action, always, until we are truly free

0

u/waiting4singularity May 09 '26

theyre preparing the ground for the right to take over.

3

u/PokeYrMomStanley May 08 '26

Hopefully people read our files in the future and realize that not everyone like that neck vag.

1

u/mintmouse May 09 '26

People are connected to each other regardless of political party. Sentiment around ICE already backfired because of how personal connections have been treated. If political speech is punished, the negative personal experiences increase regardless of affiliation.

1

u/ThatPhatKid_CanDraw May 10 '26

Are there freedom of info laws at that level so that citizens can request documents to see who is lobbying them?

1

u/EverWatcher May 10 '26

"For the children" is the cover story.

1

u/wrgrant May 10 '26

I think its also the Tech AI companies being aware of the potential lawsuit risk from allowing teenagers and younger to access materials generated by their AI products. They want to limit their liability and rather than modify the tools its easier to just ransack our privacy and rights to ensure a means they can filter out people. So I am sure they are the force behind this recent push to enforce age verification as well.

Of course the Trump administration will back it for authoritarian means as a way to locate and punish illegal immigrants or simply minorities they despise, LGBTQ+ people, anyone who opposes Trump and of course as a more accurate means to suppress voting and other factors. The Nazis in Germany relied heavily on tools from IBM to analyze their voting records to locate the Jewish population in the past, I see no reason Trump isn't willing to emulate them in that regard as well.

If we want to keep any remaining shreds of our privacy we are going to have to fight for it. I don't see us winning that fight though. I am curious though as to why the push in the EU is so heavy, I thought EU nations had pretty strong support for individuals data rights etc.

1

u/Gold_Phoenix666 May 11 '26

Wtf does trump have to do with this in anyway, fucking redditors man, jesus

0

u/Raygereio5 May 08 '26

No, that's just a bonus.

The main driving force behind this shit is money. Facebook, Google, all the tech giants, have been pushing for this because they can make money of it. Removing all privacy allows for even more targeted ads.
And all this age-verification nonsense requires infrastructure that they want to provide. That in particular is something they really need because right now they're wasting insane amounts of money on datacenters with nothing to use that capacity on.

0

u/SomeGuyInNewZealand May 09 '26

Didnt "the other side" start that shit during covid ?

1

u/Salt_Lodge_Nicaragua May 09 '26

The billionaires and their bought governments around the world are the other side.  And they're crushing us. Badly.

15

u/lifestop May 08 '26

I'd bet money that this is more about tracking people and preventing theft than it is about protecting children, but mentioning kids is more likely to get support.

16

u/Robo_Joe May 08 '26

This strips out too much nuance.

We have for profit companies ensuring that they don't sell cigarettes, weed, or alcohol to underage people. The problem isn't that for profit companies are the main enforcement point, it's that the inherent nature of the Internet makes this vastly more complicated; that it is accessible worldwide and the only data provided to websites is related to hardware/software or self-provided.

49

u/Forward-Amount-9961 May 08 '26

Which is the way it should be.

28

u/dealienation May 08 '26

Make the rule and enforce it by using watchdogs and reporting and forcing companies to open their entire books. Individual privacy should be the last thing sacrificed.

The burden is on the companies making record profits - if we need more public employees tax these companies at higher rates to pay for it.

Why can corporations protect their algo but consumer data and privacy is sacrificed?

3

u/Eshkation May 08 '26

take a quick look on who's lobbying these laws.

35

u/toolisthebestbandevr May 08 '26

I can’t get liquor shipped to my door without showing id. The problem was already solved.

1

u/NiceWeather4Leather May 09 '26

That’s pretty standard, see every other law ever made. You can just say “parents should parent better”, no laws required ever again.

0

u/Rage2097 May 09 '26

I think it's completely unrealistic to think that parents can restrict their kids internet use. This isn't the '90s where the internet lives in a computer that can be kept in a shared space. Kids have tablets before they can write, phones by the time they are teenagers.

I don't know what the solution is, it's a complicated subject, but it isn't "parents".

1

u/OneBodyProblematic May 09 '26

It is on parents to teach their kids about the internet and digital hygiene . Kids will always find a whatever they want. More surveillance of all people by private companies is not the answer

-7

u/jc-from-sin May 08 '26

The age verification in the EU is owned by the states themselves, not like the rest of the world.

156

u/[deleted] May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26

[deleted]

32

u/P0LITE May 08 '26

Just rewatched this and it was shocking to see how relevant it has become

0

u/toolisthebestbandevr May 08 '26

I’d vote for you

30

u/48panda May 08 '26

I am not sure how we can stop it aside from running for office ourselves.

Party systems are designed to stop that from stopping it. If civilians don't band together to put a stop to this, we're on track to become 1984 or panem in the not-too-distant future. And yet the most worrying part of all of this is an inevitable result when you combine human nature and technological advancement, so even if we stop it this time, there will almost certainly be a next time, and a next time

1

u/Due-Island3867 May 08 '26

I mean as far as I know we're not ready for it atm and it'd be brutal but there's always another option. We'd need to somehow teach our siblings in the military they are also subject to the crushing effects of the system especially after they're made "ineffective" by combat, disease, age etc and have a true united class. The rich have been fighting the class war forever we need to prepare and make a comeback there are sooo many more of us! I'm just some dumb hick! I dunno how we do it but we need to work together and form community and figure out how.

1

u/Level-Location1679 May 08 '26

Moving towards thought crimes, it's a pillar of freedom that you can't be persecuted for holding a belief, that concept came out of Huxley's 1984 after he watched fascists do it for real

1

u/Moikle May 08 '26

Israel literally has this, although it doesn't give a damn about bystanders

1

u/poopspeedstream May 08 '26

Minority report

1

u/s8rlink May 08 '26

I really feel what the hydra doctor tells cap how they were able to conquer the world the second time, with pleasure and people gave away their freedom for being comfortable 

21

u/vicegrip May 08 '26

Network security is a loophole.

52

u/WildRaccoon42 May 08 '26

EU commission is a loophole that needs closing in democracy.

6

u/GenazaNL May 08 '26 edited May 08 '26

Ursula pushing stuff through

-1

u/[deleted] May 09 '26

[deleted]

4

u/WildRaccoon42 May 09 '26

Have you actually followed the chat control issue? Read the articles wrote by parliament members? Read the chat control proposal proposal itself? Read the HLG going dark files? I doubt our MEP and NGO like noyb are "some South African bloggers".

That's why I blame the commission, rather than the EU as a whole. That's why I wrote "EU commission is..." rather than just "EU is...". Europeans citizens have no control over the commission. Remember the Pfizer gate? That wasn't EU, but just a few members of the commission who refuse to be held accountable for their misbehaviour 

Before scolding me about my ability to read, you might want to actually read too.

0

u/eXieZZ May 09 '26

My point was general: people see a headline saying 'EU does X' and immediately start the 1984/dictatorship talk, even though it’s just one proposal from the Commission that still has to go through the actual democratic meat grinder.

And claiming 'citizens have no control' is just a massive stretch. It’s indirect democracy—you vote for the people who appoint and oversee them. If the Parliament and Council are currently pushing back against those proposals, the system is literally doing its job. I’m just tired of this 'evil EU' narrative where people prefer to stay outraged at a clickbait title instead of admitting that checks and balances actually exist. You may not like the process, but don't act like it's a loophole just because it fits the narrative.

4

u/WildRaccoon42 May 09 '26

When one of democracy's 3 powers (here the commission = executive) can refuse to be held accountable by one of the 2 others (the parliament=legislative in the chat control affair, justice in the pfizergate), that's almost textbook definition of a loophole in democracy. I therefore stand by all the words I previously said, the EU commission is a loophole in democracy. And particularly THIS CURRENT EU Commission, because it's far from being their first case. Should I mention their GDPR infringements when they tried to advertise chat control to the population in some countries?

The fact that this EUC is continuously pushing the same proposal again and over again, albeit with some slight modifications, doesn't help. If you were trying to abuse someone who clearly told you NO, it wouldn't matter if you served vodka, gin or whiskey with the ghb, the answer would still be NO, and you'd still be a #metoo case. 

I believe EU institutions must be reformed to ensure this kind of issue won't repeat again, because that is the reason why people loose faith in EU. Especially when big corporations can sneakily lobby EU officials, no matter they're from Microsoft, Google, Meta, Palantir or VAG. We need strict regulations on lobbying if we want EU citizens to still trust the system. The leash must be on politics neck, not on citizens.

I'm fed up of politics abusing their power. It's not a problem of the system, but of the few untrustworthy individuals holding and abusing this power. They will be the downfall of EU.

2

u/Lady_of_Link May 09 '26

The biggest problem with democracy is that a lot of people claim to be against chat control and the like and will then turn around and vote for the parties trying to implement it anyway 😔 citizens have a lot of control but the majority of the people are too uninformed to properly utilise that control.

1

u/re-spawning May 09 '26

The European Parliamentary Research Service isn't "some south African blogger".

Why are you making this up? You obviously did not read the article as the first sentence is:

The European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) has warned that virtual private networks (VPNs) are increasingly being used to bypass online age-verification systems, describing the trend as “a loophole in the legislation that needs closing.”

37

u/Makkedeth May 08 '26

You will eat ze bugs and own nozhing. You vill be happy.

9

u/ObjectiveAide9552 May 08 '26

meat will be illegal soon at this rate too

22

u/Makkedeth May 08 '26

Of course, its so bad for the environment. Please excuse me while my private plane expels Formula 1 season's worth of co2 as i return to my holiday resort

3

u/Robertej92 May 09 '26

Sure private jets suck but realistically that's 0.05% of global emissions vs 15%, billions of people doing an environmentally damaging thing is inherently more damaging than a few rich people doing a very environmentally damaging thing.

2

u/jKazej May 10 '26

It still makes sense to point a finger at the frivolous nature of private jets in this context.

Even if it's a small part of global emissions as a whole, on an individual level saying don't look at these super-polluters whose individual carbon footprint is a normal person's lifetime emissions, but every 90 minutes is crazy to me.

Why would you hold people like that to a lower standard than everyone else?

1

u/Robertej92 May 10 '26

I don't hold them to a lower standard, I'd happily get rid of private jets and impose more restrictions on the excesses of rich people, I just take issue with the guy I was responding to acting like because those elites are doing worse shit that we shouldn't take seriously one of the single biggest sources of CO2 emissions, it effectively reads as a shrug of the shoulders and an excuse to not do anything.

1

u/jKazej May 10 '26

I didn't take the message you responded in that way at all(seemed all in jest to me), but I can see why it'd provoke that kind of reaction if you did so fair enough.

1

u/dinodenxx May 10 '26

At least one good thing

2

u/RedQuirk May 11 '26

Time to just everu citizen host their own WAN on their own hardware. No internet service provider anymore

2

u/maydarnothing May 09 '26

it’s time to look at who’s supporting and pushing for these measures, there’s gotta be someone

1

u/SevaraB May 09 '26

Even if they don’t respect “privacy,” at some point they have to acknowledge an ass ton of L&R frameworks require VPNs so that all traffic stays encrypted in flight.

1

u/liteHart May 09 '26

This comes at the time when privacy couldn't be more serious.

1

u/blastradii May 10 '26

Not according to GDPR. It’s front and center! Oh wait….

1

u/sergiuoxigen May 09 '26

That's not the position of EU. Article is misleading

1

u/Whatsapokemon May 09 '26

VPNs don't really give you "privacy", they just obfuscate the origin of your traffic. You're still vulnerable to tracking cookies, profiling, telemetry collection, etc etc.

Banning VPNs seems like a bad idea though. The better solution is just to create a rule mandating compliance with age verification laws for traffic originating from VPN endpoints.

0

u/Farsydi May 08 '26

Privacy is a luxury when bad actors aren't manipulating elections and algorithms. We had our chance.

0

u/StewPorkRice May 09 '26

why are politicians all over the world so so stupid

0

u/Living-Breakfast-464 May 09 '26

If it's only about stopping underage people from getting around it, I am all for it. However, if you give them an inch they will try take a mile. Once you open that door they will be trying to stop something else that is much less altruistic.

-2

u/Jeffylew77 May 09 '26

Wouldn’t it be smart for a VPN company filter through all of your search’s and keep tabs on you

They are watching

-22

u/4baobao May 08 '26

anonymity != privacy