Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users

Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by subscribed on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:18PM (#48572617)

https://stateofsurveillance.org/articles/government/uk-lords...

It mostly happened already and it's in motion.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by ravenical on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:17PM (#48572601)

https://xcancel.com/BBCBreakfast/status/2066788360606138759

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by arbol on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:07PM (#48572448)

When they realise their social media ban for children doesn't work

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by iAMkenough on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:09PM (#48572486)

Think of the children that will bypass all of the "protections" recently adopted by the UK.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by gonzalohm on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:20PM (#48572650)

How would they even do that? A VPN is just a remote machine. Anything can be a VPN

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by tryauuum on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:59PM (#48573215)

Like in Russia

    - drop wireguard / OpenVPN packets crossing the country border
    - analyze https traffic to detect traffic patterns not matching https fully and block such connections

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by Borealid on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @03:56PM (#48575959)

The state of the art, "xray-reality", is not blockable. It's a legit tls connection with data smuggled inside it.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by tryauuum on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @05:35PM (#48577248)

Are you taking from the experience that this is not blockeable in Russia?

EDIT: I might be confusing vless/xray/reality but seems like there are no problems to block it based on ip reputation + tls fingerprint + amount of connections https://habr.com/ru/articles/1044396/

Of course this would block some valid websites but when has government cared about that

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by Borealid on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @09:25PM (#48579378)

The IPs are Cloudflare, the TLS fingerprint is uTLS Chrome, and the number of connections with xhttp is the same as your normal browsing.

If you are willing to block browsing all ordinary web sites fronted with a CDN, then yes you can block reality/xhttp. You cannot, however, differentially block it via any of the three things you mentioned.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by tryauuum on Thursday June 18, 2026 @06:32AM (#48583381)

They are willing to break some cloudflare-fronted websites. That's already a reality in Russia.

The government (any government) hates its citizens and the freedoms it had to allow them

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by ifwinterco on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:40PM (#48572953)

And some including mullvad already accept payment in crypto, there will always be some dodgy VPN company in some dodgy jurisdiction that will take your BTC in exchange for an account.

I don’t think that will stop them trying though

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by Natfan on Friday June 19, 2026 @12:27PM (#48600303)

mullvad would accept a cash envelope, i don't see how a government will stop that

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by frollogaston on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @08:08PM (#48578783)

They can make it impractical for most people by repeatedly banning VPNs by IP address. Users have to pay upfront to figure out if their chosen VPN even works, then it could still break later.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by Magnusmaster on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @11:36PM (#48580480)

Probably by forcing VPNs to only allow approved operating systems to connect to the Internet via hardware attestation, then those operating systems will only allow users to install signed apps, and only government-approved VPNs will be allowed.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by tentacleuno on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:20PM (#48572658)

The "Technology Secretary" is actively investigating it[0].

[0]: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/new-vpn-...

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by jasonvorhe on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @12:22PM (#48572683)

They said so. "Nothing is off the table" was the quote, iirc.

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Re:Volkswagen started blocking GrapheneOS users by domh on Wednesday June 17, 2026 @02:12PM (#48574350)

Apologies for the youtube shorts link, but Liz Kendall was on LBC yesterday talking about VPNs:

https://youtube.com/shorts/WvHl3G6KojI

I believe they're "doing research" into it, which basically means they don't understand how any of it works.

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