UK users do not have to provide ID to use VPNs

https://fullfact.org/technology/uk-internet-vpn-users-id-false/

Posted by _FullFact

18 comments

  4. No way… This is shocking… To anyone who doesn’t live under a rock

  5. Wow this is big if true, I wonder what those letters stand for… could the P stand for private maybe?

  7. The TL;DR:
    Viral posts are falsely claiming that UK users must now show ID to use VPNs. But this is **not true**, and **there’s no law requiring it**.

    The confusion stems from a **Daily Express article** about the Online Safety Act, which introduces age checks for websites hosting porn or harmful content – not VPNs.

    **What the evidence shows:**

    * The original article [never says VPN users need ID](https://web.archive.org/web/20250728095022/https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/2087611/vpn-update-adult-UK-block)
    * The Online Safety Act [doesn’t mention VPNs](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/50) at all
    * UK officials, including Peter Kyle MP, confirmed [VPNs remain legal](https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=798427656036133#t=1m15s) and ID checks are *not* on the cards
    * The user who spread the false claim **admitted they misinterpreted the article** and deleted their post

    ✅ VPNs are still legal in the UK
    ❌ You don’t need to show ID to use one

  11. I’m thinking of getting one as my Reddit experience is far worse since the law change. I can’t see ANY NSFW posts in my feed at all.

  12. I use Mullvad at the moment. So anonymous you can even send them cash in an envelope to get access

  13. That’s the point -sent from “Gotham City, USA”

  14. People just post any old shit on this sub and call it news, yeah? Cool

  15. It’s weird how people are suddenly up in arms about this. We’ve had a far more dangerous piece of legislation in effect since 2016. The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 allows the government to snoop on your activity online, without a warrant, without reasonable suspicion, just if they need to or want to.

    Both laws were highly publicised and covered extensively by the media. Now everyone wants to bolt the stable door after the horse has bolted.

    The amendment to the law, which will cover the use of tor or VPNs is the next battle front. Get yourselves organised. Get facts, case studies, numbers, anything you can that would be useful in a paper-war, because that’s what it’s going to take.

    I suspect that, eventually, biometric data will be required to access the Internet.

  16. I know TOR provides a similar service, but Opera is first rate. It is disgrace that the British government has used the “won’t someone please think of the children” excuse to curtail our freedom. It goes against everything Tim Berners Lee, who is one of our greatest living countrymen, represents. And from a Labour government. It is shameful

  17. Politics doesn’t understand that the Internet is just one big onion.

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