if they are so concerned about children, how about doing something about the mormon church and the fucking horrible crimes that are committed against women and children in it?
Nah they support that.
But spoofing a phone number and harassing me all day isn’t worth solutioning. This Gov. is not representing us.
The Biden admin was about to regulate data brokers but then Trump happened.
Yet another Biden failure! When will that guy stop causing all our problems?! Thanks Biden! /s
I’ve learned a little bit of multiple languages to answer the phone in a foreign language. It absolutely fucks with the scammer on the other end because they are expecting an English speaker.
I mostly ignore calls from unknown numbers, but if I ever answer any I do something similar, but I use gibberish.
“Hello sir, I’m calling to see if you are aware of the latest energy deals in your area?”
I respond with something like: ‘Ha felth malak nakufi parament, cheeshan bah farkone.’
I then get very animatedly exasperated with them if they can’t understand me.
‘BISHAN TA FALAF TOOSH? MAIR PUNAN TA FALAS!!! EDGEKA, EDGEKA MALA!!!’
I never end the call, always keep going until they do, which is often pretty quickly these days unfortunately, because I’ve started to kind of enjoy playing with them.
Occasionally if it’s clearly a scam call rather than a spam call and I have time, I’ll actually pretend to play along dumbly to see how long I can keep them on the line. All time record is 49 minutes during the pandemic lockdown (I was bored). The guy finally caught on and released a barrage of expletives and wished me death. It was awesome!
If you do anything OTHER than ignore them, your number gets marked as “active” and then sold to other scammers. I roll my eyes at the people who gleefully brag about all the ways they “fuck with spammers” without realizing that by simply answering the phone, they have already given them what they want. Sure, the low level worker on the phone (who might actually be a slave) might want you to fall for a scam and give them money, but the people running these call centers are perfectly fine if all they get is confirmation that you have an active number which can then be sold to other call centers.
Stop answering spam/scam calls.
Web services and websites should block all Utah IP addresses and redirect to page explaining that because they cannot tell who’s using a VPN, their only option is to block all of Utah.
Yes, I understand how dumb that is, but sometimes you have to fight stupid with stupider.
Porn sites have been doing that for years now.
And that’s exactly what they want.
They don’t want every website to do it though.
They don’t want every website to do it
Are you sure?
That just means that people in Utah would need to use a VPN to access those sites.
Which is hilarious, and a predictable result when your legislature is mostly filled with people who could’ve retired decades ago…
Even worse, that would not necessarily help. If someone’s accessing your website through a VPN that’s not located in that state, you would not block it… then become liable.
Better block everything at this point -_-
The great firewall of Utah, all your pron must be inspected by government officials prior to delivery…
Web services and websites should block all Utah IP addresses
That won’t work on a VPN, though. The VPN will say the user is coming from outside the state. That’s the whole point of the VPN.
right, meaning everybody will need to get a VPN, defeating the purpose of the law
So you’re saying we should blockade the blockade? /s
With a button saying “Actually, I’m using a VPN so it looks like I’m in Utah but I’m actually not.” that gives you access
No, the better solution is for sites that age verification is pointless to block Utah. If you make a mobil app check the GPS or IP and disabl the app if they are in Utah. People should go on sites like Yelp in mass and put down votes on every establishment in Utah so that ths site becomes useless for anyone in Utah. Pretty much just destroy all tech and internet for all things Utah.
More ways to control our lives and track our movements.
“Party of small government”.
Personally, I would stop using any site that did this. We all know nothing matters in this country but money. Companies stop making as much, they’ll get legislation changed.
Land of the free etc
If I were a lawyer arguing against the law in court, my primary argument would be that this violates the interstate commerce section of the US Constitution.
only problem is, it’s gonna get upheld 6-3
The stupidity of these lawmakers is beyond wild. How the fuck is this real?
I have a similar idea, let’s prosecute the police when they fail to catch criminals and punish them instead. A killer got away? Death penalty for the police officer in charge. That will make the killers think twice!
Or even better, let’s prosecute politicians when their laws backfire and do more damage than good.
I bet you a dollar that all of them are technologically illiterate.
i mean, how are we defining tech illiteracy? they have heard of the twitter, okay?
These aren’t “age checks”…it’s identity tracking.
Absolutely! Journalists really need to start describing these as what they are rather than the marketing term. It is much more accurate to call them “ID Checks” or something like that.
To date, the only countries that have made progress in blocking VPN traffic with some success are authoritarian regimes with ISP-level surveillance.
You know you’re on to something when the only playbook you can find was written by the Chinese government.
Even the Chinese government struggles tracking people using VPN’s, Utah is in for a rude awakening.
I was under the impression that China sorted of allows it so that people travelling for business can still access everything they’re used to
The horseshoe theory of mass surveillance
I don’t think it’s has anything to do with a horseshoe when they are just becoming a dictatorship as well. It’s just a line at that point.
It seems like it’s just a matter of time until the US has it’s own red firewall.
Not just a US thing. EU is pushing for much more restrictive measures regarding mandatory ID registration. And it will be EU-wide for us. US will most likely be much better in that regard from 2027 onward, since only a few states seem to change things.
For now, They’re trying to do it federally as well.
Remember when we told people “they’ll make it illegal to use a VPN” and we got snarky replies like “it’s not enforceable LOL”.
The fuck it isn’t. Traffic coming from a VPN? That’s a paddlin’, kiddo.
They’re not even trying to masquerade it as… oh, yes, they’re still trying to masquerade as a “think of the children!” measure. Those fuckers.
and we got snarky replies like “it’s not enforceable LOL”.
Not being enforceable hasn’t stopped a lot of bad laws from being enacted.
My housing complex has a 10km/hr speed limit, it is completely unenforceable (police aren’t going to put in a speed trap or monitor a road inside a housing complex). Doesn’t stop people getting all upset because they’re sure someone was going 15.
People can use this to look like local traffic.
The problem for most users is: they actually want to look like traffic from somewhere else…
I meant to say residential traffic of whatever country they connect to instead of a data center.
looks sketchy af
agentic browser ew
corporate ew
real trustworthy privacy/security/anonymization/decentralization software is libre, open source, non-corporate, an unpaid not-for-profit free-time project that never makes use of any money, decentralized with no official host, and most importantly made by trans anarchist catgirls who use obscure operating systems
Russia’s VPN crackdown disrupts banks, marketplaces and government services
And so if I’m in Utah as a traveller I can’t check my local news by vpn? Ok
Age verification is a red line. I will not comply
This from the people who elected a notorious pedophile, “thinking” that he would find the real pedophiles.
The pedophile class has the audacity to dictate access to a utility under the guise of protecting the children
