Utah first state to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

[T]he controversial law establishes that a user is considered to be accessing a website from Utah if they are physically located there, regardless of whether they use a VPN or proxy to mask their IP address.

This is the stupidest idea I’ve heard recently. My home router has a built in VPN server. When I’m out running around, my iPhone can route traffic through my house. Pray tell, o sage Utah legislature, by what misguided notion did you expect a website to tell that I’m accessing a it from a hotel in Berlin instead of my house in California? (Which is why we used it last time: I configured my travel router to use that home VPN so we could watch American Netflix at night before bedtime when we just wanted something familiar to relax with.)

Honestly, this is the new “pi equals 3” legislation. “Let’s make laws codifying technical ideas we clearly have no freaking clue about”.

This is who you elected, Utah. Well done.

Utah’s stupid new law “prohibits covered websites from sharing instructions on how to use a VPN to bypass age checks.”

It’s probably illegal for minors to access this site from Utah because I say some things that Utah’s leaders probably find offensive. Let me know if I don’t; I’ll work on fixing it. To access it over a VPN, follow these instructions to turn on iCloud Private Relay. Then I can’t see where you’re connecting from.

There. Now I’ve broken the law in Utah.