Downloads from VPNs have exploded in Great Britain since the introduction of age reviews for pornography and other age -limited websites on Friday.
VPN apps have increased to Apple’s download diagrams, while a provider, Proton, said that he had increased daily registrations by 1,800 percent.
You need to know the following about the technology.
What is a VPN?
How do you work?
What are you for?
Are you legal?
What are the risks?
What did politicians say about them?
How do you check your age according to the online security law?
How VPNs deal with the age review
VPNs or virtual private networks are services that can provide internet users to dress up where they access the web.
Some use them to be online anonymous, but most install VPNs to bypass the Internet restrictions in their own country by passing on the traffic so that they are online as online elsewhere.
In the past few days, the United Kingdom has recorded an increase in VPN use based on new online security age tests that are required on websites for adults.
If you use the Internet via a mobile network, a home-to-fi connection or a public hotspot, your internet activity offers an IP address (Internet Protocol) that is assigned to your router or smartphone.
Websites can use this address to say from which country and region you visit.
A VPN prevents this. Instead of connecting directly to a website, internet traffic goes through the computer server of the VPN company, which are located in different places around the world.
This server then returns the data traffic to your smartphone or computer so that users can “dress up” where they come from. It is a bit like using a phone booth instead of your own phone to make a call so that the recipient cannot see who rings.
VPNs are often presented as a means of protecting privacy. Millions of websites and apps that pursue activities from your personal IP address can be used to target ads or profile.
The programs are popular in countries such as China, in which internet access is restricted and closely monitored.
However, they are also often used to avoid other internet controls. Netflix regularly tried to stop the use of VPNs to access TV catalogs in other countries in which the company called “Whack a Mole”, while French sports broadcasters have asked for VPNS to block illegal streaming websites.
Since websites are used for location-dependent controls such as the new age reviews in Great Britain for adult websites under the IP address of a user, VPNs are now also used to bypass them.
VPNs are legal in Great Britain, and the online security law does not change. The requirements in the new laws are on websites to enforce age reviews, and not on the users you have to carry out.
The use of a VPN to avoid TV streaming services is not a criminal offense, but is regarded as violations of the service and can lead to a ban.
All illegal online activities such as the reputation of football games are still illegal if you use one.
If you guide your entire internet traffic through a single company, you have to enable this provider to trust this provider. In theory, you could save all of your browser data or sell you to the highest bidder.
An early popular VPN, Hola, was accused of commanding the users’ Internet addresses to trigger cyber attacks, while another Onavo was used by Facebook to pursue which rival apps have become increasingly popular. In response to this, the company gave users the opportunity to choose from the function.
In 2020, several VPNS revealed public protocols to use the Internet.
A recently carried out examination of the Tech transparency project showed that some popular VPN apps ran traffic over China.
“VPNS are data protection tools, but not silver balls because they shift the trust in a private company by using one,” says Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Adviser for the security company Eset. “So it is important to choose one you trust.
“While VPNS encrypted your data traffic and mask your IP address from your Internet service provider, you can see everything you do on the Internet as soon as data traffic reaches your server.
“It is advisable to avoid free VPNs because some have been caught some user data to advertising customers in the past.”
Mr. Moore recommended that you use a paid VPN with a “no protocols” guideline that does not save the user’s browser history. Some companies continue by checking these guidelines from third parties.
Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, said that websites that VPNS would be able to apply as a way to circumvent age tests would be punished.
“If platforms or websites have a crime in relation to problems such as VPNs, this is a crime itself and is tackled by these codes,” he told The Telegraph last week.
Peter Kyle, the technology secretary, says that companies are punished if they make VPNS as a means of restricting circumstances – Julian Simmonds –
Companies have to take appropriate steps to prevent children from seeing content for adults, although the detection of VPN use is seen as a consistent challenge, with the provider repeatedly improving the technology they use to mask the traffic.
Melanie Dawes, the head of OFCOM, told the MPs in May that people would use VPNs to avoid the restrictions.
“A very concerted 17-year-old who really wants to use a VPN to access a website that she cannot do,” she said. “Individual users can use VPNs. Nothing in the act blocks it.”
When the online security law under the previous conservative government passed the parliament, Labor supported another procedure against VPNs.
“The use of VPNS shows a serious weakness in the weapons chamber of the online security law,” said Matt Holman, AI and data lawyer at Cripps.
In the course of use, the pressure for further procedure can build up.
For those who simply want to carry out the NewAGAGE reviews of websites, most websites offer users a variety of ways to check whether they are over 18 years old.
Companies such as X, Reddit and Discord enable people to use software who are known as a facial estimate where they record a short video selfie that uses artificial intelligence to guess whether they are over 18 years old or not.
Other options offered by websites are the entry of a credit card number or the connection to a bank account that proves that users are over 18 years old, or the upload of an ID issued by the government.
Since the online security law only applies in the UK, users can come from any number of countries that have not enforced age reviews.
Websites usually do not use other location identifiers such as the GPS signal of your phone to track the location and are largely based on the IP address.
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