Mozilla to UK regulators: VPNs are essential privacy and security tools

msuniverse2026

UK regulators are just hearing another excuse for a loicense.

anonymous2024

And also VPNs are tools to open doors in the minefield of legislations that they need to create to improve the incoming of some business, not of the people that voted for them.

egamirorrim

The UK gov needs to sod off with all this 1984 BS

ifwinterco

UK is not and has never been a free society, UK elites have an authoritarian streak. Historically they were fairly smart at doing it subtly but the mask slipped during Covid and they never really put it back on. Also - outside the HN bubble this stuff isn’t even unpopular. Normies supported covid lockdowns and they don’t want their kids watching porn either. The people yearn to be ruled and nannied

iLoveOncall

> VPNs are essential privacy tools Does Mozilla not understand that this is the exact reason why the UK wants to forbid them?

robotswantdata

1984 was meant to be a warning, not the UK’s digital infrastructure roadmap

speedgoose

While their arguments are sound, Perhaps Mozilla should disclose in this document that they are also a VPN reseller.

rvnx

Interesting that they mention the UK but forget that the EU also wants to protect the kids by banning VPNs

globular-toast

This is a fairly difficult problem. I think the internet should be for adults only, like many other things. But we've fucked up by giving children internet access and it's going to be hard to undo it. I think rather than fighting these measures we need to work on alternatives because keeping children off the internet is a good idea, we just need to implement it in a good way. What about just banning phones for children? Could we ever make that work? It would be like cigarette bans except we now have 5 year olds addicted to tobacco and addict parents who don't want to make them go cold turkey. Public libraries and schools can be used for genuine research purposes, but not addictive shit. And implemented ad blockers at the network level.

borzi

That's why the government wants to get rid of them.

aboardRat4

Didn't people make kinda that huge and broad movement too terminate PIPA and SOPA? Could you, my wonderful Western friends, do that again? I mean, all of it is even on video and largely on YouTube.

ayashko

Something I learned just recently—the Australian government (surprisingly!) actually recommends VPN usage, they even provide a bit of a guide and how to; https://beconnected.esafety.gov.au/topic-library/advanced-on...

badgersnake

The UK government does whatever Meta tells them to do. We tax cigarettes because they’re bad for you. Let’s tax algorithmic news feeds.

usr1106

User to Mozilla: Cannot read your statement with a variant of your own browser because you have it "protected" by an internet gatekeeper.

acd

Actually with data fusion VPN does not fix privacy. Ad networks does data fusion of Javascript browser finger print. So you are de cloaked any way on a VPN

Havoc

I hear the UK regulator did want to respond but Mozilla office doesn't have a fax machine. So the grandpas in charge of regulating modern tech just took a nap instead

cryo32

I have seen some of the inside of this and it's not quite as clear cut. One side of this is driven by a bunch of not too reputable think tanks behind the scenes who persuaded a couple of fringe academics to agree with them and push for it via the civil service. The government is taking bad, paid for advice. I don't know what the agenda is there but there is one and I reckon it's commercial. Probably a consortium of businesses wanting to create a market they can get into. However the security services do not agree with the government or the think tanks and actually promote advice contrary to the regulators. They will ultimately win. Attacking the regulators and revealing who is behind all this is what we should be doing.

charcircuit

It should be possible for VPNs to only give UK customers UK exit nodes so that sites can still properly enforce the law. Same thing with having VPNs that ban explicit sites. It's not an all or nothing thing.

Chance-Device

I think this is a genuinely difficult problem that happens to look exactly like what you’d need for extended surveillance. When I think about it seriously, I end up coming up with the idea of a whitelist enforced on device for local accounts used by children. This would probably block most of the internet, and allow access only to sites that are validated as being safe. This would put a lot of pressure on sites and service providers to ensure safety, such as children-only walled gardens within their broader services. We already have piecemeal attempts at something like this through on device private age restriction software, but it’s not organised at the state level, and I think it’s not effective enough as a result. If legally enforced it could be made into a pretty effective system that would give adults freedom and anonymity and provide safety for children, while pushing the costs of child safety onto the platforms, which is where it belongs. If you want to cater to children, prove that you can make it on to the whitelist. Otherwise that’s an audience you’re just not able to access.