Posted by Cider9986 2 hours ago
Soon enough (and already the case, if you're one of the unlucky ones) you won't even be able to browse it without explicitly allowing Google to track you on every single website you try to access through your Google-approved, constantly monitored handheld device, linked directly to your identity.
Commercial VPNs are not a solution, they're merely kicking the can down the road, and shrinking the number of people that will complain once they will, finally, come for them too, first by requiring strict accountability to providers and age verification, then outright banning any that do not comply.
So far I have UK, China, Singapore.
But maybe I should accept less rights when traveling.
You (and me) can bitch all you want, but reddit has well prepared for us whining and being sad will change nothing.
Mark my words: KYC will be required on HN in about two years. Not because dang will want it, but because that's the direction the world is going to.
Garry Tan, president & CEO of YC, on Flock support: "You're thinking Chinese surveillance US-based surveillance helps victims and prevents more victims" [1]
The tech/VC people want it, because that's where the money will be.
Oh Persona is also used on Reddit [2].
Persona.
A YC backed company.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48628264
[2] https://help.withpersona.com/articles/7F6BaF9h8Fxf0XWkwQscXN...
[1] https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/02/age-verificat...
For me, ditching Reddit was what changed.
We are clearly the minority and reddit is happy to pay the price of us leaving the platform.
We moved here because it was the best place available: we'd move elsewhere in case this place will not be available.
It's just that a small minority will continue to protect child abuse^W^W^Wresist utopia.
Use a VPN, perhaps Mullvad or IVPN to appear to sites as if you are from a freer country (or state) to bypass the KYC.
Yes I understand. They are better prepared to fight the surveillance state than I am. And yet they caved in instead of putting out some resistance.
Doesn't matter. They want your passport.
Very weird world we live in!
Of course people are deficient by the billions.
Internet WILL be completely KYCed and very soon. That's kind of inevitable.
https://xcancel.com/GrapheneOS/search?f=tweets&q=Backdoor&si...
the presenter now works at intel.
I trust Mullvad 100x more than my ISP, so it's a good decision to use Mullvad and it benefits my privacy.
It's not like your ISP or Mullvad can see content of sites, either they can just see the DNS requests.
What ISP sees without a VPN: news.YCombinator.com, apple.com, Wikipedia.com
What ISP sees with a VPN: Mullvad server
What VPN sees when you use it: news.YCombinator.com, apple.com, Wikipedia.com