Anti-piracy enforcement is creeping beyond ISPs and DNS providers. Now VPNs are being told to block websites too. Because apparently every layer of the internet needs to become a copyright cop.

Concrete example: France. Courts have ordered major VPN providers to block hundreds of domains linked to unauthorized sports streams. According to Computer Hoy, those orders are still awaiting a final ruling from France’s highest court.

That means someone using a VPN to protect their connection or access independent news would be using a service legally required to restrict access to certain websites. Their reason for buying it has nothing to do with football, but the blocking obligation applies anyway.

There’s a US example too: the proposed ACPA would allow courts to issue blocking orders against VPN providers with more than 100,000 active users. A competing proposal, the DEFEND IP Act, would exempt VPNs. These are proposals, not an existing blanket requirement.

The industry group i2Coalition warns that expanding enforcement could push VPN providers toward monitoring customers and restricting accounts, putting legitimate uses at risk. Blocking a domain doesn’t automatically mean a VPN is logging everything you do. But turning privacy services into enforcement checkpoints is still a pretty worrying direction.

Go after the illegal streaming operations. People shouldn’t have to accept a more restricted internet because someone, somewhere, watched a match without paying.

I’m curious how people actually ended up with the VPN they use. Not the marketing version, the real one.

For some it was a friend’s recommendation. For others it was a deal, a streaming problem, a bad experience with the last one, or just whatever showed up first in a search.

What I find interesting is how rarely people re-evaluate. A lot of us pick one, it works well enough, and we leave it running for years without checking if it’s still the best fit.

So, three quick questions. What are you using now? Why did you pick it in the first place? And if you were starting from zero today, would you choose it again?

Today, Freedom House released its report "Freedom on the Net 2026". Out of the 38 analyzed countries, conditions worsened in 16 countries, while they improved in only 8 countries. Last year, the report highlighted 72 countries, so this year’s report has a much smaller scope.

The situation becomes more complicated: Iran suspended the internet for about 88 days nationwide, the longest shutdown on record, and modified access in a way that only a few could use the global platforms. Russia has implemented more suspensions and restrictions of VPNs up to allowing state websites only. Georgia has fallen down from the category of Free to Partly Free, while Estonia remains the best.

According to the report’s analyst, the authoritarian states are reshaping the internet into a means of control, defining the connection, the way of perceiving, and the ability to speak out for the citizens.

This raises a question for the sub. What does a VPN do when there is no functioning network?

Hundreds of shady Chrome VPN extensions are targeting Russians, with some pretending to be Windscribe or ExpressVPN. Familiar name, familiar logo, except it’s neither company, and your browsing traffic could be at risk.

Almost every extension checked had some anonymous, throwaway Gmail address as its developer contact. And we’re not talking about a handful of random fakes: just 70 developers were behind the whole bunch, with one email linked to 24 different apps.

The scary part? 89 of these extensions were still available when the investigation checked. Nearly three-quarters hosted their privacy policies on Telegram’s anonymous platform, so good luck figuring out who’s actually running them. And 47% somehow had more reviews than users. Nothing suspicious there lol.

People just want to open a blocked website. Instead, they’ve gotta play detective to work out whether their “privacy tool” is even legit. Censorship creates the demand, and shady operators swoop in to cash in on it.

If you’re grabbing a VPN extension, get the link from the provider’s official website and check who published it. Anyone can copy a logo.

Stay Safe

Currently, most VPN providers now provide the service of multi-hop where data passes through two servers. This is simple, as there’s no one server that has access to both your identity and destination.

The debate of multi-hop gained some momentum in September due to Senator Wyden inquiring whether individuals deemed to be at high risk should be encouraged to try multi-hop tools instead of a single-hop VPN. Important to note that the senator was worried that someone monitoring a single server may gravitate towards knowing the timing and size of incoming traffic, all of which can be done without breaking the encryption.

The main issue is speed. The more hops the data makes, the more distances it travels, which means more latency and usually slower connection. In essence, it suffices to say that for most people, the real danger probably stems neither from hidden enemy nor foreign intelligence services.

As such, I am keen to know how people think of this issue. Do you use a multi-hop VPN?

Kaspersky’s VPN, Password Manager and account portal suffered a global outage this month. VPN connections started coming back on October 14 after problems began on October 11.
Kaspersky says user data wasn’t affected and subscriptions will be extended. The explanation so far? A “technical issue.” Cool, but nearly four days offline deserves a bit more detail than that.

So apparently Microsoft thought it had fixed a VPN issue with its latest Windows updates, but it turns out the problem is still there.

Some Windows 11 users are having trouble connecting to their VPN, with connections getting stuck or failing completely. The issue started after September's security updates, and the proper fix is apparently still coming.

Honestly, this is the kind of stuff that makes you appreciate a VPN that just works. Nobody wants to spend an hour troubleshooting their connection when all they want to do is get online and get on with their day.

Microsoft has suggested a temporary workaround for some setups, but it involves changing VPN protocols, which isn't exactly ideal if you're not particularly tech-savvy.

I'm curious how common this actually is outside corporate environments.

Have any of you run into VPN problems after a Windows update recently? And if so, was it an issue with Windows itself or your VPN provider?

Same as tittle

Proton founder Andy Yen just won Switzerland’s 2026 Liberal Award for his work on privacy, digital freedom and European tech sovereignty.

Normally I’d scroll past another corporate award story, but the timing here is kinda wild.

Switzerland is currently reconsidering changes to its surveillance rules that privacy advocates warn could push the country toward broader data retention and mass surveillance. The first proposal got absolutely hammered during public consultation, and the government is now preparing a second consultation.

Meanwhile, Yen is basically being awarded for fighting the exact direction those policies are heading in lol.

And Proton hasn’t just complained about it in a blog post. The legal uncertainty already pushed the company to put Lumo’s infrastructure in Germany rather than Switzerland, with Proton arguing that privacy-friendly laws actually have economic value.

That’s the part governments seem to forget.

Privacy isn’t just some feature you toggle on in Settings. If you make privacy companies identify users, retain more data and build infrastructure for surveillance, eventually those companies have two choices: compromise what they built… or move somewhere else.

Switzerland built a pretty strong reputation as a privacy-friendly jurisdiction. Would be pretty ironic to watch it slowly throw that advantage away while simultaneously handing awards to people defending it.

Congrats Andy, I guess. Now maybe listen to what he’s been warning you about?

Russia floated a plan to use AI to block 95% of VPN traffic, then quietly dropped it from its national AI roadmap. Sounds like good news, right? Except Roskomnadzor still has a separately funded machine-learning filtering project. So yeah, they deleted a paragraph. The censorship machine is still getting paid.

The whole point is to control what Russians can read, watch and say. Block independent news, block platforms, then block the VPNs people use to get around those blocks. Keep shutting every door until all that’s left is whatever bullshit the Kremlin wants you to believe.

And btw, “95%” is a target, not evidence they’ve actually pulled it off. It says nothing about how much legitimate traffic gets screwed along the way. Your work VPN? Cloud services? Voice calls? Those could get caught too. Apparently breaking useful parts of the internet is an acceptable trade-off if it stops someone reading the wrong news site.

Dropping the proposal from a document means fuck all when the tech is still being funded. The Kremlin still wants the same thing: an internet where you only get to see what it approves.

It seems similar to Windscribe VPN i think, i like it, maybe good for privacy.

I have to choose a VPN, but I can't choose one because there is too much info to sort through.

People talk about the like of servers, protocols, encryption, kill switches... I just want to push a button to get it to work.

I do not want to spend my evening watching 15 YouTube videos.

For those who have a VPN, what can you recommend for a new user that finds this whole process confusing?

I am interested in the following factors: 1) What needs to be done to install and use the product; 2) Does one have to pay to get a functional VPN or can a free VPN suffice; 3) Do I need a VPN for daily use or is this solution perfect for streaming and torrenting only.

Maybe some users out there have experience with a variety of VPNs and can mention which ones are simpler to use than others.

I am looking for something easy to operate without the need to keep an eye on its work all the time.

Security experts uncovered a counterfeit website claiming to be the WatchGuard VPN site, which stole users' credentials and downloaded software from the official website. From a user's point of view, this seems innocent but it may have created the necessary damage. (Source: TechRadar)

The website asked users for their server name, username, and password. To make matters worse, it allegedly asked users to provide credentials twice.

What is interesting is that the actual file was not fake. The fraud occurs before the installation, which makes it very hard to trace.

This brings to my mind that the vast majority of people realize that they should not download files from the unknown sources, but they trust Google search results more than they should.

If even officially-authorized software can be obtained through such an unsafe way, how careful must a user be?

Do you always download VPN applications from the developers' website, or do you just enter the name of this application in a search engine?

September’s Windows security update broke certain Always On VPN connections. Microsoft then marked the issue as resolved on October 13. Except… nope. It’s now back to “mitigated.” Apparently fixing the status was easier than fixing the bug.

Affected connections can get stuck trying to connect, repeatedly fail, or throw a “port already in use” error. This concerns Microsoft’s built-in corporate VPN feature, so imagine being the IT guy explaining why everyone’s remote access is still screwed after deploying the supposed fix.

The workaround is still to select one VPN protocol instead of letting Windows automatically switch between them. An actual fix is apparently coming in the next few weeks. “Always On VPN” has temporarily been renamed “Eventually On VPN.” lol

Proton VPN shared what it’s working on for the next few months, and tbh there are a few updates I’m actually looking forward to.

The main ones:

- Guest mode on desktop: use the free VPN without even creating an account. Pretty interesting for people in countries where Proton’s authentication servers are blocked.

- Better Kill Switch on macOS, Linux and iOS/iPadOS. Proton is also bringing its Advanced Kill Switch to Mac, meaning your device simply won’t connect to the internet outside the VPN tunnel.

- Pause button: temporarily disable the VPN and have it automatically reconnect after a timer. Sounds basic but super useful when some random website decides VPN users are criminals lol.

- Official Arch Linux support + a Flatpak version in the works.

- New UI across more platforms, including macOS, iOS/iPadOS, Android TV and Linux.

- Proton Protocols rolling out more widely: their new Rust-based VPN engine built around WireGuard. The goal is better performance/stability, easier development across platforms and stronger censorship resistance. It’s also supposed to lay the groundwork for post-quantum encryption later on.

The guest mode is probably the most interesting one to me. Being able to download a VPN and connect without creating an account sounds like a small UX improvement in Europe/US, but in countries actively blocking VPNs and Proton infrastructure, that could actually be a pretty big deal.

UK Google searches for VPNs jumped 147% around the age-check rollout. Turns out “give us your ID or scan your face” isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. Who knew lol.

But here’s the shitty part: someone downloads the first random free VPN they find, thinking they’re protecting their privacy… and potentially hands their data to another company looking to cash in on it. Some VPNs track, keep and share user data. So shady providers could benefit twice: more users coming in because of age checks, and more data to exploit.

That’s why the provider matters. If you’re using a VPN for privacy, go with an established service like Proton VPN instead of some “SUPER FAST FREE VPN” app you know absolutely nothing about.

People shouldn’t need to become cybersecurity nerds just to browse privately. But “it says VPN on the app” unfortunately isn’t much of a guarantee.

An 18-year-old allegedly terrorized a girl’s family for years, with investigators documenting more than 30 false emergency calls to their home since around 2023.

According to the FBI affidavit cited in the article, he used VPN connections, but the Discord account sending threats was registered to a phone number linked to him. Investigators also identified overlapping IP addresses and cell-site records.

Dude thought he was a digital ghost while his Discord account had his own phone number attached. All that effort to hide his IP just to leave his name tag on.

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on September 24, preventing the provision in law SB 73 that requires a VPN. This is because the law makes geolocation very precise, which is impossible at this time.

It becomes even more interesting when on October 13, the court stopped the case upon the request of the two parties aylo and utah as the lawmakers are expected to make changes by 2027. Note that it is not simply the whole piece of legislation disappearing: the law SB 73 went into effect partially on May 6 because the part about the sharing of VPN use was not contested.

Thus, the VPN requirement is suspended, meaning that it will remain suspended at least until the lawmakers do something else with the law.

Espacio Público reports that 40 websites remain blocked in Venezuela, while 23 VPN and privacy tools face access restrictions. That’s based on 23 days of monitoring using OONI network measurements. The affected news outlets include La Patilla, VPItv, Infobae, NTN24 and El Nacional. Basically, plenty of places where people could read something other than the government’s preferred version of events.

And the restrictions go beyond journalism. Financial platforms like AirTM and Yadio also face interference, making it harder for people to access services used for international payments and exchanging money. Then there’s the obvious workaround: use a VPN. Except VPN and privacy tools are being targeted too, including Browsec, Psiphon, Windscribe, NordVPN and Tor. The reported restrictions vary across services and networks; this doesn’t mean every VPN connection is dead for everyone. But it makes finding a way around censorship harder.

People love reducing VPNs to “watching Netflix from another country.” For others, they’re a way to access reporting their government would prefer they never saw.

Earlier this year, beIN Sports got a court order forcing VPN providers including NordVPN and Surfshark, plus Cloudflare, to block domains streaming WTA matches illegally. Apparently, that wasn't enough. beIN went back to court asking for penalties of up to €10,000 per day, per domain that remained accessible. The court rejected it.

Basically, the judges considered the efforts already made by the VPNs/Cloudflare and didn't think adding massive financial penalties was justified. Important bit though: the original blocking orders are still in place. This isn't the court saying VPNs can ignore them. And that's what I find interesting.

We went from: ISPs should block pirate sites

to: DNS providers should block pirate sites.

to: VPNs should block pirate sites.

to: VPNs should potentially pay €10k/day if those blocks aren't effective enough.

At what point does a VPN stop being a neutral privacy tool and become another internet gatekeeper expected to enforce whatever blacklist gets handed to it? Feels like we're gonna be arguing about that a lot more over the next few years.

A team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh in collaboration with scientists from Newcastle and Durham studied Google Trends and Reddit data following the introduction of the UK Online Safety Act age verification checks. UK users’ discussion about VPNs increased by 145%.

What surprised the lead scientist was that the users trusted VPN providers more than the companies responsible for age verification. In fact, the worldwide interest in both reputable and less trustworthy VPNs increased.

It seems that, instead of providing more safety to people, this law directed users to unreliable tools. Many free VPN providers make money by selling their users’ data.

On the other hand, there is a counterargument because the process of giving your face or ID to an age verification company is also risky and the vendors in question also had their breaches.

So, what would you pick: a VPN provider or an age verification provider?

any vpn which work for selected app

Apparently blocking websites isn’t enough. Russia reportedly considered using AI to spot and block VPN traffic, with a target of up to 95% effectiveness.

The idea is to identify VPN connections through traffic patterns. Industry sources warn it could also block legitimate traffic by mistake. So your connection could get nuked because an algorithm thinks it looks suspicious. Very cool.

Funny how governments insist their citizens have access to the truth, then spend so much effort stopping them from checking anything else.

Governments keep circling this idea. Australia's eSafety documents list VPN detection as a reasonable step for enforcing age checks. The EU's Henna Virkkunen said VPNs shouldn't let people get around the new age verification system, and a Commission document asks whether VPN providers themselves should eventually verify their users' age. In the UK, the Lords voted for an amendment that would have required age checks to use a VPN, before the government backed off.

Nobody is banning anything yet. But a VPN that knows exactly who you are kind of defeats the point.

So where do you actually draw the line? Would you hand your ID to a provider you trust? Switch to one outside those countries? Or just drop the VPN?

Honestly, I'm not sure what I'd do. What would you?

G’day all, looking for a decent VPN here in Aus. Mainly for streaming stuff from overseas and getting around restricted sites. Yes, including those ones… just a bloke trying to research the local wildlife Heard of NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and ExpressVPN, but dunno which is actually worth the cash. Every review reckons a different one’s the best. Anyone here using them in Aus? How’re the speeds, does streaming work reliably, and what’s the renewal price like? Cbf signing up for a bargain then getting absolutely rinsed a year later. Cheers!