EU authorities start seizing VPN services

[dkbit98]

It's not the first time some VPN service was seized, but it's not surprising EU is doing it after recent law changes leading towards digital prison.

We already do, most popular one probably being nym: https://nym.com/

Nym VPN was very good during my testing, and it's only getting better, but it's still not fully decentralized.
At least they are going in right direction, and no VPN service is perfect, even Mulvvad VPN recently had serious security bug discovered.

Besides, it literally costs $28,68 for 2 years if paid with their coin $NYM (which you can just buy and send to the checkout address).

Yeah, real bargain, and I not sure this offer will last very long.
First it was hard to get NYM tokens, but now it's easy to get themm on popular blockchains and pay directly with 87% doscount.

[Synchronice]

It seems like the EU is doing it's best to play hardball with VPNs, especially those not having KYC or bank payments as their primary payment method.

Is there a VPN that has KYC? I haven't heard about one because every VPN provider advertises themselves as privacy protector. By the way, you gave a good idea to some stupid politicians, to set KYC on VPNs but that will be completely stupid thing to do, so I'm sure that won't happen. If someone wants privacy, there is a Tor out there and by the way, VPNs are used by lots of kids to play online games on different servers with less lag.

We all know cybercriminals and ransomware actors use all kinds of "regular" VPNs, like Mullvad or ProvonVPN. Is it only a crime if they are actively marketing themselves as "criminals-friendly"?

Well, banks launder money and criminals launder money through banks and we all know that but no one closed any popular bank that laundered money, only fines if any. By the way, if any bank advertises themselves as they'll help criminals to launder money, it will be a crime.

[alani123]

It seems like the EU is doing it's best to play hardball with VPNs, especially those not having KYC or bank payments as their primary payment method.

Is there a VPN that has KYC? I haven't heard about one because every VPN provider advertises themselves as privacy protector. By the way, you gave a good idea to some stupid politicians, to set KYC on VPNs but that will be completely stupid thing to do, so I'm sure that won't happen. If someone wants privacy, there is a Tor out there and by the way, VPNs are used by lots of kids to play online games on different servers with less lag.

Just the other day I stumbled upon a literal porn site that would not let you access unless you submitted a face scan or listed your full credit card details. Then there's also social media who will have similar measures and eventually even chat apps.

VPNs are about to receive a full scale ban! Under proposed legislation it will be fully illegal to sell these services to Europeans. So probably visa and MasterCard and banks will have to ban these transactions. Websites and IPs offering these services will be blocked by ISPs and usage will be much harder. Maybe some good VPNs will manage to get through restrictions by VPN services working via advanced tunneling and having their own tor website and using crypto but suddenly it will feel like a high crime to order a simple VPN..

[dkbit98]

Is there a VPN that has KYC?

If you paid for VPN service with your bank card or with paypal, you basically performed voluntary kyc verification, especially when they combine that data with your real IP address.
I would not be surprised if they started asking for additional verification for VPN sinces UK started implementing crazy laws and bans.

[Synchronice]

Then there's also social media who will have similar measures and eventually even chat apps.

Facebook, for example, asks you to submit the picture of your ID if you boost posts via it.

VPNs are about to receive a full scale ban! Under proposed legislation it will be fully illegal to sell these services to Europeans. So probably visa and MasterCard and banks will have to ban these transactions. Websites and IPs offering these services will be blocked by ISPs and usage will be much harder. Maybe some good VPNs will manage to get through restrictions by VPN services working via advanced tunneling and having their own tor website and using crypto but suddenly it will feel like a high crime to order a simple VPN..

That will be crazy if they ban VPNs. Honestly, they have been able to catch criminals using VPNs, right? If they ban this, why don't they understand that criminals will find another deal? It's impossible to ban things for criminals, the only people that will suffer from these type of bans will be normal customers who don't do anything bad but simply want privacy online and/or to lower their ping while gambling.

If you paid for VPN service with your bank card or with paypal, you basically performed voluntary kyc verification, especially when they combine that data with your real IP address.
I would not be surprised if they started asking for additional verification for VPN sinces UK started implementing crazy laws and bans.

Well, you are true but I quickly forgot that I've never paid for a VPN with bank card and in my pretended that bank cards don't exist . I've always paid with cryptocurrencies.
UK is really implementing crazy laws. You can't post your opinion online without the possibility of getting arrested. Is this the UK or North Korea?

[OmegaStarScream]

Facebook, for example, asks you to submit the picture of your ID if you boost posts via it.

Is this something recent? It's some time since I boosted a post but I never needed to submit my documents before.

I don't see how would one ban all VPNs services or shut them down, but websites could definitely be forced into banning anyone accessing their websites through a VPN because most of people use public IPs that are easily detectable as opposed to unique dedicated IP addresses (either via through a service or running their own).

[coupable]

If you paid for VPN service with your bank card or with paypal, you basically performed voluntary kyc verification, especially when they combine that data with your real IP address.
I would not be surprised if they started asking for additional verification for VPN sinces UK started implementing crazy laws and bans.

Well, you are true but I quickly forgot that I've never paid for a VPN with bank card and in my pretended that bank cards don't exist . I've always paid with cryptocurrencies.
UK is really implementing crazy laws. You can't post your opinion online without the possibility of getting arrested. Is this the UK or North Korea?

And here's the strange paradox; people provide their data in exchange for a service that allows them to hide their data on other websites. But it is understandable when knowing that most users don't have too many options. And this is how it becomes easy for authorities to ban the service or even tracking users.

The only VPN I dared to purchase is NymVPN[1] just because it allows payment via a large variety of cryptocurrencies. In addition to its great performance, because it didn't happen at any time that a website detected that I was using a VPN.

[1] https://nym.com/

[joniboini]

It's impossible to ban things for criminals, the only people that will suffer from these type of bans will be normal customers who don't do anything bad but simply want privacy online and/or to lower their ping while gambling.

Maybe they don't really care about the average joe who want privacy to begin with. It's easier to ban known tools that criminals regularly use from their pov I bet, just like how my government like to blacklist websites but takes a long time to actually improve education programs and whatnot. I'm pretty sure seeing people complains online that they can't access Netflix is acceptable compared to the risk of political opponents using their lack of achievement in busting criminals to build a narrative.

[Synchronice]

Facebook, for example, asks you to submit the picture of your ID if you boost posts via it.

Is this something recent?

First time it happened to me to couple of years ago.

And here's the strange paradox; people provide their data in exchange for a service that allows them to hide their data on other websites. But it is understandable when knowing that most users don't have too many options. And this is how it becomes easy for authorities to ban the service or even tracking users.

Not everyone uses VPN for privacy. Too many people use VPN for streaming, gaming and gambling. Around me, lots of kids use free VPNs for playing mobile games on different servers. Some use it to download games that are restricted in their own country. Some use it to watch their favorite anime that's not available in their region on Netflix or Crunchyroll.

just like how my government like to blacklist websites but takes a long time to actually improve education programs and whatnot.

Good point! The reality is that they don't care about the education, they care about the votes of people and if they improve education, educated people won't vote for their masquerade and instead, will start asking questions and will judge them.

[alani123]

After having an account on Facebook for over 15 years they asked me for ID verification recently. I opted to deactivate Facebook and only use messenger but recently after finding out that it was actual Facebook lobbyists that were pushing California to enforce age verification I decided to stop using Facebook all together completely.

There's zero reason to keep giving our data to corporations that profit from killing our online privacy and even make it a political cause to do so.

[coupable]

And here's the strange paradox; people provide their data in exchange for a service that allows them to hide their data on other websites. But it is understandable when knowing that most users don't have too many options. And this is how it becomes easy for authorities to ban the service or even tracking users.

Not everyone uses VPN for privacy. Too many people use VPN for streaming, gaming and gambling. Around me, lots of kids use free VPNs for playing mobile games on different servers. Some use it to download games that are restricted in their own country. Some use it to watch their favorite anime that's not available in their region on Netflix or Crunchyroll.

I see all of them as legit reasons to use a private navigation. VPN are created to break limitations set by authorities at first place. Banning those services was always expected in the way to fight privacy tools at first place. By arresting company owners and seize servers, they prevent them from moving to other friendly juridictions. Note that how the EU aims to fight other online companies.

[michellee]

Sooner or later we will lose the freedom to access the Internet as KYC, no VPN, and other verification methods will be applied. We can't avoids because the sites will argue that's the basic rules from the government to control customers.

I don't know what happened to my Facebook as I am not too active anymore but hopefully, Facebook will not ask for ID verification so I can still use it without worrying about my identification.

But from many VPNs, I wonder how many VPN seized or prohibited by the EU authorities.

[avp2306]

Sooner or later we will lose the freedom to access the Internet as KYC, no VPN, and other verification methods will be applied. We can't avoids because the sites will argue that's the basic rules from the government to control customers.

I don't know what happened to my Facebook as I am not too active anymore but hopefully, Facebook will not ask for ID verification so I can still use it without worrying about my identification.

But from many VPNs, I wonder how many VPN seized or prohibited by the EU authorities.

Those actions shows that we are heading on more verification process and the our privacy will get affected on what they are implementing. Government is so controlling with this actions they made and companies will just get forced to follow their orders. Facebook also sometimes ask those verification process  and I have mixed reactions ones it suddenly occurs.

Its fine if they are just targeting those VPN services or services which has been commonly used for illegal activities, but they should not generalize all of them because there are people use this tools for good purposes.

[dkbit98]

Well, you are true but I quickly forgot that I've never paid for a VPN with bank card and in my pretended that bank cards don't exist . I've always paid with cryptocurrencies.

They can still identify you, especially if you used bitcoin, ethereum or anything else connected with your identity on centralized exchanges.
Connecting your coins with email address used for registration, and IP addresses used is more than enough for them.

The only VPN I dared to purchase is NymVPN[1] just because it allows payment via a large variety of cryptocurrencies. In addition to its great performance, because it didn't happen at any time that a website detected that I was using a VPN.

I can confirm this.
It has best rates from all top VPN services I used, and it's not being detected as VPN IP addresses.
There are some issues with occasional connection breaks, so it's not perfect and it needs some connection improvements.

[coupable]

The only VPN I dared to purchase is NymVPN[1] just because it allows payment via a large variety of cryptocurrencies. In addition to its great performance, because it didn't happen at any time that a website detected that I was using a VPN.

I can confirm this.
It has best rates from all top VPN services I used, and it's not being detected as VPN IP addresses.
There are some issues with occasional connection breaks, so it's not perfect and it needs some connection improvements.

I can also confirm this kind of issue with NymVPN. In addition to some other shortcomings, like it doesn't run automatically after reboot, this can't be set or adjusted from the settings. And when a new version is launched, the old actual one stops working immediately and shows an update error. But to be honest, it is the best in the market, and I can't find better alternatives.

[Italian Panic]

This is the Europe of freedoms.

I can confirm that Mullvad is a great VPN; it also accepts payment in cryptocurrencies with an additional discount. NYM it is very good too in fact, it’s the future of VPN service.

[dkbit98]

I can also confirm this kind of issue with NymVPN. In addition to some other shortcomings, like it doesn't run automatically after reboot, this can't be set or adjusted from the settings. And when a new version is launched, the old actual one stops working immediately and shows an update error. But to be honest, it is the best in the market, and I can't find better alternatives.

In recent versions I also noticed that I can't connect the exact last locations after I restart or turn on my computer again.
This happened after they added new quantum encryption thing, so maybe this is something related.
It's going to be interested to see how NYM is going to handle VPN bans around the world.

[LTU_btc]

Just the other day I stumbled upon a literal porn site that would not let you access unless you submitted a face scan or listed your full credit card details. Then there's also social media who will have similar measures and eventually even chat apps.

VPNs are about to receive a full scale ban! Under proposed legislation it will be fully illegal to sell these services to Europeans. So probably visa and MasterCard and banks will have to ban these transactions. Websites and IPs offering these services will be blocked by ISPs and usage will be much harder. Maybe some good VPNs will manage to get through restrictions by VPN services working via advanced tunneling and having their own tor website and using crypto but suddenly it will feel like a high crime to order a simple VPN..

Wow, porn website asking for KYC? Ok, now I saw everything. Never thought that words KYC and porn can be used in same sentence and it sounds more like a joke.
I doubt that in nearest future we will have full scale ban of VPN's. Yeah, we are going to this direction step by step, but I think they're going to continue banning individual VPN's and try to sell it as good thing, like it was fight against crimes or something similar.

[joniboini]

Its fine if they are just targeting those VPN services or services which has been commonly used for illegal activities, but they should not generalize all of them because there are people use this tools for good purposes.

That's also a slippery argument to be honest. They'd just argue that every takedown happens because the VPNs are used for illegal activities to begin with. There's no way they said "ok, we make a mistake closing this one" and will just run a story that every takedown reduce crime rate by 15% or something. We can only see how they'll abuse this and if a story about government abuse will comes sooner or later. Even without those things we have so many abuse cases already.

[LTU_btc]

That's also a slippery argument to be honest. They'd just argue that every takedown happens because the VPNs are used for illegal activities to begin with. There's no way they said "ok, we make a mistake closing this one" and will just run a story that every takedown reduce crime rate by 15% or something. We can only see how they'll abuse this and if a story about government abuse will comes sooner or later. Even without those things we have so many abuse cases already.

Yeah, that's weak argument. Ok, let's say they closed VPN X because of illegall activities. So, these who used this VPN simply will move to VPN Y to continue these activities. So, they will have to close this VPN to.
But it's question how much VPN's is actually used for illegal activities, rather than for common things like privacy, streaming or shopping. Serious crimes probably aren't done using mainstream VPN's. There is TOR or VPS for it.