"VPN" occurs exactly zero times in the bill.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686...
Furthermore, some have pointed out that the language of the bill could force providers to start tracking what users do.
I’ve encountered quite a few “but the bill says nothing about VPNs” comments and those seem to be problematic takes.
The bill doesn’t mention TikTok either.
Source?
The key issue seems to be the very open ended language about attempting to circumvent or aiding in the circumvention of any enacted restrictions.
As written, this seems to potentially impact both users of VPNs and VPN providers.
The lawmakers aren't evil mustache twirling villains, they're trying to create a law and they wrote it as sensibly as they reasonably would in their circumstance and people on the internet are blowing it way out of proportion.
Blowing things up like this is a thing the internet, America in general, has problems with. The TTP, If you remember that one, was another one that people absolutely tried to crush and it turned out it was actually a really good idea that we should have been part of.
The reaction to this is scarily similar, and it's going to be resulting in a similar loss if it gets shut down.
In all hopes they buckle down, put down some revisions to neuter some of the more egregious things people are complaining about, and the law passes with those extra protections.
Trump's withdrawal from that agreement was one of the most catastrophic decisions the United States government has made in the last 20 years.
"I will stop any trade deal that kills jobs or holds down wages, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership. I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election and I’ll oppose it as president.”
The TPP's 5,000+ pages actually had very little to do with trade. Instead, corporations tried to turn it into a wish list for policies that they knew would never pass through Congress.
They were in favor of it because it was a good law, and it further an American interests in the wider world. Half of the restrictions and changes were ones that literally didn't affect America and just brought other countries up to the Americans standard.
> because it was a good law, and it further an American interests in the wider world.
No, it wasn't a good law. It would have raised the cost of drugs significantly. The pharma bros are already billionaires. We don't need them to get richer. It had no protection for low-income American workers - esp auto workers. TPP would have led to a mass offshoring of jobs. Frankly, I do not wish this to devolve into a discussion on TPP, because its disadvantages and non-trading related addendums were already covered by media on both the left and the right.
https://www.vox.com/2015/10/5/9454511/tpp-cost-medicine
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/opinion/united-auto-worke...
https://time.com/4065267/trans-pacific-partnership-american-...
Do you know what populist means? Short term appeal to voters instead of long term and more difficult decision making.
> No, it wasn't a good law. It would have raised the cost of drugs significantly.
Yeah. For other countries. America already pays these prices. In fact, a lot of that is what lets these drugs exist for other countries in the first place.
This likely would have *lowered* the price for Americans.
Hah, the American voter is far more brighter than HN folks give them credit for. They have to look out for their interests since the elite most certainly wont.
No, the drug prices wouldn't have reduced. Come now - provide your logical reasoning why the drug prices would have reduced ? Do you really think the Pharma industry would have gained suddenly gained sympathy after achieving a perfect stanglehold?
The US imports >50% of its generic drugs from nations who have none to minimal drug patent protection policies and thats how it keeps it's citizens alive. You would have had the pharma billionaires choke this supply too.
Every modern bill for free trade agreements is perverted into a corporate wishlist to the detriment of most people.
What do you believe would have been the key benefit?
It also says transactions or any other actions... So, I let myself be tracked by TikTok by using a VPN, am I a criminal?
9 times out of 10 you can basically assume, " reasonability". Does viewing ads in TikTok give them money? I would expect not, because you're not getting the money. Posting ads on there certainly would count.
Giving gifts to creators probably would also count, although I'm sure a court would consider that incredibly minor, it would probably never get enforced, and even if it did it would probably be some tiny paltry amount.
The bank who lets that transaction happen however, might get in trouble.
If you let yourself be tracked using a VPN...? I suspect the answer to that question is going to lie in why you're doing that. Inadvertently? Almost certainly not going to be an issue.
Do you have some sort of ulterior motive? It's probably going to be a problem. After all, you're literally committing espionage for a foreign adversary of the United States in this case.
Remember that law is backed by court cases, and courts tend to be pretty reasonable. These things aren't programmed, they're human