UK Lawmakers Propose Mandatory On-Device Surveillance and VPN Age Verification

https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-lawmakers-propose-mandatory-on-device-surveillance-and-vpn-age-verification

53•_____k•1mo ago

Comments

ekjhgkejhgk•1mo ago

> Lawmakers in the United Kingdom are proposing amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill that would require nearly all smartphones and tablets to include built-in, unremovable surveillance software.

> The proposal appears under a section titled “Action to promote the well-being of children by combating child sexual abuse material (CSAM).”

So they only believe that surveillance on smartphones and tables, and surveillance on desktops isn't necessary?

OgsyedIE•1mo ago

Surveillance and nothing else? According to the sponsors this is really about the capacity to plant false evidence on protestors.

subscribed•1mo ago

This alone should tell you clearly enough its not about CSAM.

subscribed•1mo ago

Don't seem to be able to edit or delete it, but i responded to the wrong person obviously.

dmitrygr•1mo ago

it never was...

luxpir•1mo ago

Not to stand up for bad laws, but what is wrong with everyone in the comments? On what planet would they not have considered all angles? The peanut gallery has gotten ridiculously loud of late.

raxxorraxor•1mo ago

Well, surveillance on smartphones is possible, desktop devices are safer.

a456463•1mo ago

This will also include said lawmakers too right?

teekert•1mo ago

If people can watch the watchers, everybody can watch everybody. So: No. Some animals are equal, but some have to be more equal than others. Otherwise we can't have the most equal system. It's double-plus-good that way.

Now install the app, slave.

wiml•1mo ago

This would make it illegal to sell a phone or tablet with an unlocked/unlockable bootloader, wouldn't it.

prajaybasu•1mo ago

Where are all the Europeans gloating about privacy and their "regulations" while their governments are basically erasing actual privacy and free speech?

mahmoudhossam•1mo ago

Friendly reminder that the UK left the EU over "sovereignty concerns" among other reasons.

The EU is the one with actual privacy regulations, for now at least.

RestartKernel•1mo ago

This isn't a gotcha. The same Europeans who gloat about privacy laws are horrified with these recent developments.

RevEng•1mo ago

How exactly does one make software that makes it impossible to view or transmit CSAM? What is looking at each picture, each video, each text message to make this determination?

This is the same classic "wiretap everything" solution that never works and just undermines people's rights. There's no way they would ever use this ability for anything else, right? And nobody else would ever abuse it either, right?

How long until people start using this to capture and produce CSAM?

jbstack•1mo ago

All this will do is compel me to import my phones instead of buying them in the UK. If I stay below the thresholds I can even avoid giving 20% VAT to this dystopian government that we've ended up with.

Multi-agent coordination on Claude Code: 8 production pain points and patterns

Washington Post CEO Will Lewis Steps Down After Stormy Tenure

DevXT – Building the Future with AI That Acts

A Minimal OpenClaw Built with the OpenCode SDK

The silent death of Good Code

The Internal Negotiation You Have When Your Heart Rate Gets Uncomfortable

Show HN: Glance – Fast CSV inspection for the terminal (SIMD-accelerated)

Busy for the Next Fifty to Sixty Bud

Imperative

Show HN: I decomposed 87 tasks to find where AI agents structurally collapse

I went back to Linux and it was a mistake

Octrafic – open-source AI-assisted API testing from the CLI

US Accuses China of Secret Nuclear Testing

Peacock. A New Programming Language

A postcard arrived: 'If you're reading this I'm dead, and I really liked you'

What to know about the software selloff

Show HN: Syntux – generative UI for websites, not agents

Microsoft appointed a quality czar. He has no direct reports and no budget

AI overlay that reads anything on your screen (invisible to screen capture)

Show HN: Seafloor, be up and running with OpenClaw in 20 seconds

Tesla turbine-inspired structure generates electricity using compressed air

State Department deleting 17 years of tweets (2009-2025); preservation needed

Learning to code, or building side projects with AI help, this one's for you

Effulgence RPG Engine [video]

Five disciplines discovered the same math independently – none of them knew

We Scanned an AI Assistant for Security Issues: 12,465 Vulnerabilities

Amazon no longer defend cloud customers against video patent infringement claims

Show HN: Medinilla – an OCPP compliant .NET back end (partially done)

How Does AI Distribute the Pie? Large Language Models and the Ultimatum Game

Resistance Infrastructure