When I was in Poland, I couldn't use a rental bike because you have to have a Google Account tied to the Polish Playstore to be able to install the app. For this exact reason I couldn't collect Starbucks points or pay conveniently while in Mexico for 6 months. Google and Apple expect you to buy 1 phone per country. This comes up again and again and again.

In South Korea, I couldn't even watch my own YouTube playlists. Some Chinese music videos I watch were age restricted and you have to become a long term legal resident to be able to verify. Oh, and they might not sell size 46 shoes commonly there either but I sure couldn't order them. You need the same ID just to be able to receive a package Fedex'd from overseas.

And on and on and on... Currently in Ukraine, at least 2 of my banks block me from any access to my finances both my phone app and any web access. A favorite travel news website I read also blocks access.

Multiple Texas government agencies actually block any overseas access, preventing my from cancelling my highway toll pass or paying the bill. I think I had trouble accessing some tax sites too. God forbid anyone ever go on vacation. You have a WWW site? You mean CWW, right?

There are a whole list of other problems worldwide, I wish I'd written them all down. Amazon is 100% nationalistic anti- the existence of other countries. All I can say is god bless Netflix, they're the most reasonable of any company or government by a wide wide margin. I see no need to play with VPNs for Netflix.

Paypal won't allow me to add my Israeli credit card, while keeping my Canadian credit card attached. Ummmwhy? Google Pay complains that my Israeli credit card can't be registered to my Israeli address since my Google Play account is in Canada.

The only companies I don't want to light on fire now are Amazon and Spotify. Everyone else just causes friction, which becomes the way I become a customer elsewhere. It's almost as if countries and companies are designed to ensure you stay in a specific geography. G-D forbid I use my Canadian credit card to pay for electronic services in Israel.

As for credit cards, definitely get a local one because most CC's will kill you on exchange rates and fees. Get a local bank account, a local credit card, and transfer funds with something like TransferWise [1]

Amazon works okay internationally, although again I'd recommend using two URLs (or containers) for each version. For example, you can access Canadian Amazon with "smile.amazon.com", and the Israeli one with just "amazon.com". But in general I think it's a good idea to use a container- (or browser-) per-country.

I'm not sure I entirely blame the digicorps on this one. Compliance with local law is difficult enough in isolation; these "dual digital citizen" cases are probably really complex. In fact, I'm surprised Spotify works seemlessly; it's probably an oversight by the music publishers.

This is all a corrallary, BTW, to the general truth that the only way to make money with digital goods is by creating artificial scarcity.

1 - https://wise.com/invite/u/joshuar301 - full disclosure, happy customer and this will generate 60 euros (under some circumstances) for me if you sign up.

Good luck with this in France. You have to show evidence of stay (a contact for utilities), for which you have to have an account.

There is a law that states that you can get an account without these requirements, and then there is the reality.

This reality also means that if you know someone who is a good client in a bank and go with them, there is a good chance they will open the account.

Banking in France is such a mess.

That's not necessary. The landlord needs a bank account number, and some might ( of course, entirely depending on the person) accept a foreign one + the explanation that you're in the process of creating a French one. I've done it and know people who have done it, but of course it limits your options, especially in high in demand cities like Paris.

And there are always the neobanks - IIRC Aumax and Boursorama didn't ask for "justificatif de domicile" ( a utility bill or similar).

And there's another trick, you can get a phone contract online, with only a credit card; and this will get you a bill with any address you choose, but that's gaming the system.

This is good news, I know several people from the EU (and outside) that could not get a renting contract because of the lack of good ol' French IBAN

> Aumax and Boursorama didn't ask for "justificatif de domicile"

Boursorama does, I do not know for the max card.

> you can get a phone contract online, with only a credit card;

oh really? the telecom companies do not ask for your actual address? I thought that this was now impossible following the anti terrorist laws

So, with lots of money you can break the circular problem of: you need a residence to get a local account, and getting a residence requires a local account and physical presence in the town hall registration office.

There are probably (hopefully) more efficient ways to do this, but that's how we did it.

Since the iPhone XS, they have double SIM. One of the 2 must be an eSIM, but otherwise it works fine.

I only recently re-opened an account due to local convenience, but would not trust them for moving serious cash around anywhere.

My (old) UK paypal account, even though i have the full credentials, doesn't allow me to sign in because it sends an SMS to a number i've long lost. I only wanted to sign in so i can close the account.

On the upside, all google apps do work with 2 accounts

I moved a few times between France and the UK, and every time I've had to move all my accounts (Youtube, Amazon, Playstation store, etc.) but most importantly I have two separate Paypal accounts to handle both countries.

There are also some French administrative websites that I can't access when I am in the UK, preventing me from booking appointments to renew official documents. I have to use a VPN and even then the pages fail to load most of the time and are 100 times slower than when connecting physically from France.

Needed a US phone number, or US bank account / credit card, or both.

Things like Postmates didn't even allow the entry of a UK phone number with +44 prefix. I sensed then that travelling wouldn't get easier and more convenient, it would increasingly get less convenient.

There's a real opportunity for Stripe, Twilio, etc to really dominate globally given that these are the tools we need to reach the largest markets, and inversely as customers to access services in all markets.

You can presumably switch your main account, too but that might be even more hassle.

> When I was in Poland, I couldn't use a rental bike because you have to have a Google Account tied to the Polish Playstore to be able to install the app.

These sort of restrictions get nighmarish (as you mention) when the apps are the only way to do something, and they are region-locked to the country's app store.

There should be some obvious test, like if you want to make something app-exclusive, make sure the damn app is in every version of the Play Store.

Huh? How is the Play Store supposed to know whether your Israeli gas station takes cash or not?

Settings > Accounts > Add account > Google. And to choose which account to use for Play, just click on the profile picture in the app and choose the account you want from the drop-down menu.

The accounts can be tied to different countries. So there is no need to have multiple phones.

I am surprised, because there is some content on Netflix region-specific which you can't access from another country.

Compare Amazon Prime overseas - 100% worthless, they wouldn't even let me pay to view a video I would have gladly paid to watch once. My account was stuck in some sort of cyclical impossible state that bounced me around in circles with no definite error but no way to progress either. I just found it so shocking such a large company can't even account for the fact any of their customers would ever at any point go on vacation a few days.

Montana also. I'm Australian in Australia but own a vehicle in the US. When trying to renew the registration, the ecommerce site failed with an error telling me to contact some authority. That authority's site and contact details blocked access to anyone outside the country.

what do you mean? Given they have to quote shipping, it's not unreasonable to take into account.

> Some Chinese..

China, and the CPC, are well know for restrictive policies and not giving a shit if it inconveniences foreigners. The message is pretty clear: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-24/china-ban... <- English tutoring is one of the few things foreigners can get a work visa in China for. I wouldn't be surprised if CPC is actively discouraging tourism. I wouldn't generalise this behaviour to all SEA.

> Currently in Ukraine, at least 2 of my banks block me from any access to my finances

To be fair, some countries have "complicated" relationships to international law/fraud.

> what do you mean? Given they have to quote shipping, it's not unreasonable to take into account.

I'm not entirely sure what the GP was getting at, but there is some friction with amazon and the international sites. I have amazon prime, but prime subscriptions seem to be region locked as it is only reflected in the .com site. When checking out through the UK or Italian Amazon storefront, it'll even prompt me to try a trial prime subscription.

If you look at all the complaints being had here it’s all basically related to banking and legal stuff. This is a failure in governance, not really the tech companies.

Some quick devil’s advocate talking points:

- Access to ridiculous amount of information and reviews basically anywhere. What to do. What not to do. Finding hidden niche cool things. Etc…

- Access to ridiculous people too. We did a small trip in a remote location and had this young college student show us around for a private tour. Was amazing, personal, real, and got to see/try things/places we normally wouldn’t. We would not have ever had a chance to be connected with her before. It would have been big stupid tour company.

- Instant mapping basically anywhere and looking things up (just the fact you can look up a bike or car rental store in 1 second on your phone even if say you can’t do the auto bike option…)

- I can just hold my phone over a menu in any language and it translates it in real time

- Safer between family tracking me in real time via location app or just having the option to ship medicine nearly overnight if needed, etc…

- Netflix… no comment

I just feel this is a bit dramatic for one annoying rent a bike station.

I think that's because you took the example off my head and failed to extrapolate that every where I go there are some roadblocks with what have now becoming (every day to a greater degree) basic services?

Access to food delivery & local Uber equivalents can be a problem, how exactly is not being able to get food or transport a "bit dramatic" as opposed to a 100% legit complaint (in fact I got caught in multiple countries' lockdowns, and I think goodness I didn't need to self-isolate to protect people and get caught with no food delivery options etc.)

Basically - if there is no awareness - they won't be addressed. This is not about a "trade off" with the great things Google or whoever "adds" to my life, there is no tradeoff, there is simply no attempt to address this stuff AFAIK first and foremost due to 0 awareness.

Except I do think you are being dramatic and I do think it actually is about “trade offs”.

Still appreciated reading your notes.

Access blockage is a pain in many countries, but it has zero to do with identifying yourself or having an account. You only need one, with a VPN hoster.

And this concerns Netflix just as well. Either they have changed something, or you are yet to make an unpleasant discovery. In my experience, the content available varies depending on where it thinks you are hailing from, regardless of payment method on file.

Amazon is the most reliable place so far to order overseas from, with one simple rule: only buy what’s “fulfilled by Amazon”. In my experience, as long as it lets you place that order, it will arrive (though customs paperwork and duties may be on you in some countries).

On balance my experience is mostly positive when traveling across reasonable countries. (The unreasonable ones are like China, where you are half outside of the system if you don’t set yourself up with a bank account and pay with WeChat.)

But yeah, I tend to not order takeout, I hate e-bikes and e-scooters with passion, etc. so I may be in the minority here.

I think OP’s point was that one shouldn’t need a VPN to do these things.

Yes, it’s inconvenient and shouldn’t be this way, but it’s far from a nightmare (yet). The true nightmare is situation in a few places like the aforementioned China, which is where we may be headed judging by TFA, but we've a long way to go.

If you download content in location X that is not available after you get to location Y, you can still access it if you put your phone on airplane mode. Can't refresh/redownload though, obviously.

I always thought having a VPN to home was valuable for getting around silly things like this while traveling.

Or maybe funny is the wrong word…

Or we can keep the status quo.

The EU is working on its own digital ID for that very reason.

Unfortunately it still is. It has improvements though, so at least it wasn't stagnated like, I don't know, EU's APIs for VAT exemption queries.

Technically speaking, you can still access certain details (like name and gender) on the i-PIN system, but on the other hand Korean PIPA is very strict (stricter than GDPR except in certain religious activities, pointed out on the draft adequacy decision) and is actively enforcing the law.

Note that the directive also applies to the UK, where it has already been transposed into legislation.

[0] https://www.obs.coe.int/en/web/observatoire/avmsd-tracking

Even more absurd when the ads are not censored the same way, and hence can be way more adult oriented than the video.

I never though I would see the day where internet services would do something worse than TV.

But as a lot of youtubers reported, there is not much alternative since youtube:

• is the only place where you'll get such a big audience, and with powerful discovery mechanisms in place to make people discover your content

• is one of the few players actually giving you money for your content

• can handle millions of viewers in the first 5 minutes a popular video is released

• has a very low barrier of entry for consumers

Don’t blame YouTube for this.

It’s not YouTube making the decision to require ID or credit card. They’re complying with the regulations. That’s why this restriction is only in a single regulatory region, not a global requirement.

There’s a culture war brewing around internet services with user-generated content, including YouTube. One side wants more freedom to view and share content. One side wants much more censorship of anything they don’t want to see (or, more commonly, things they don’t want other people to see). This ranges from dangerous misinformation to low-grade objectionable content like video game screen recordings.

The strangest part about this internet user-generated content war is that many people have taken both sides because they just like to hate big tech platforms.

Also I don't recall my TV requesting my credit card to watch content as a kid.

YouTube isn't asking for this in other territories.

For example, https://twitter.com/wylsacom/status/1296396951550930949 (NSFW)

But I guess this is totally fine because it earns Google money in the end.

Legal in the US that's said. Because we get the censorship in our countries too even if the law is different.

So far the breadth of content on Youtube is unparalleled, but there is some hope that may change.

Maybe Twitch will eventually get more into hosting video, but I wouldn’t exactly say they’re much better.

So just like Nebula? It'd have been better if all the fleeing YouTubers had centralised on one alternative service, most people won't bother for multiple subscriptions.

My starting position is that he is guided by business pressures not terribly different from YouTube's, from the following anecdata:

I understand Linus started Floatplane because his business relies on YouTube, a single point of failure

With PIA/Kape, he left whether or not to accept advertising dollars up to a user vote in YouTube's chat. It came out tied at first, and then he went to the Floatplane stream to break the tie, which ended in favor of accepting PIA advertising

In live streams he has spoken somewhat negatively about "free speech" advocates

I think Floatplane will simply go where the dollars go in the long run, and I see little in the way of moral conviction that they would e.g. fight government regulations or payment processor demands.

Edit: floatplane's TOS seems like they aren't any better than YouTube unfortunately.

if it was JDG's video on Duke Nukem [0], it was to put pixels on the strippers of Duke Nukem 3D, so not exactly the same thing.

I really liked his follow up video [1], where another issue was how hard it was to deal with the YT content moderation team

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-or4WhpXx_k (non-censored) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74fG-8jPsRw (censored)

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb-Tk0N8XzA

https://i.imgur.com/oXAGiiU.png

Protect the children people!

The part where he is asked to censor an arm is also hilarious.

I don't like it, but I don't really expect it change.

Although do note that I have seen one such video about Verilog get flagged as +18 by Google. Dunno why.

Such nonsense just ruins the Internet, maybe we should find better approaches than "yet another banner": accepting cookies, accepting privacy policy, verifying age, registering, logging-in, etc. all to watch some dumb 10 second video... Yet, porn and violence are to this day still a Google search away. So, what is YouTube exactly trying to stop here?

I imagine all of them will eventually stop working though.

I lost a lot of mass over the period 6-to-8 year ago, so since than until recently my passport had a photo that didn't look terribly like me. Oddly this was never questioned at all at airports, though was when using it as ID for picking up an order at Tesco.

I ask this because I set up my phone's google account when I was living in Japan. When I moved back I had to switch my app store county in order to use locally purchased Play gift cards. Soon after I stated getting notifications to "Verify my age on my Google account to help them comply with the law".

So far ignoring it has seemed to work, has anyone else experienced this? Also what law are they trying to comply with?

I feel like most of these changes are there only because troubled parents feel like they're powerless to control their children.

I just mean we should be careful and work in an evidence-based way rather than a moral panic-based way or a "I turned out fine"-based way (this latter, a common defense worldwide of child beating for instance)

Since you can't prove a negative, e.g. profanity isn't harmful to children, the question here is can you prove profanity harms children. Yes anecdotes aren't evidence, but what can be asserted without evidence (profanity is harmful) can be dismissed without evidence.

Circumventing child controls was part of my childhood. I couldn't play runescape until I was "13" but I sure got around that one. Was that bad for me? Seems extremely unlikely.

I agree with the parent comment that this is a pathetic attempt at adults trying every last measure to feel some sort of control over their children.

No anonymity will be permitted by big tech, because having everything linked forever to your history allows for more revenue from advertisers.

Big tech becomes default choices for businesses and society, so no anonymity will be permitted in society.

Its so much easier to let go of your beliefs when it just becomes far too painful to keep fighting politicians and public scrutiny. Scares investors, hurts your staff, and I guess hurts revenue.

If you're YouTube and you're facing a barrage of inquiries about inappropriate content, this is the easiest way forward.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS5P_LAqiVg

Is there such a thing as a distributed Youtube archiving project?

There’s no chance content on Youtube will ever be more accessible again.

Recently they took away anyway to refresh the videos on the home screen. So I have to login as a guest, then back into my account to get refreshed videos.

There is no way to tell youtube from the app to not show me a video or a channel. I can't join a channel from the app, or look at the community stuff or any of the comments. From mobile you can do that stuff but the experience is horse shit.

I love youtube, I just can't for the life of me understand why their app on apple tv and android is absolute garbage compared to even what it used to be 6 months ago.

Resume driven rewrites? Missing functionality is a tell tail.

[0]: https://slate.com/technology/2014/07/google-plus-finally-dit...

My name is Mr. Plant. Egg Plant. I am quite slim though, but I will always use burner accounts for Google services.

That said, I also don't use GPS/Bluetooth. My carrier probably doesn't talk to Google.

Sure, there is still data that gets leaked if you aren't careful, but you can contain much of it.

Those are very restrictive, too. Consider GNU/Linux smartphones instead, Librem 5 and Pinephone.

Useless people making useless rules.