this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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Utah first state to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs — law goes into effect, designed to prevent bypassing age checks (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 4 days ago by LuminousLuddite@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It's actually quite trivial to detect most VPN providers. There's publicly available IP lists

https://ipinfo.io/tools/vpn-providers-detected

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Many VPN providers regularly rotate their IP ranges.

Regardless, that wouldn't reveal to a website where the traffic was originating from.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

wouldn't reveal to a website where the traffic is coming from

that's... exactly the point here. If you're connecting thru a VPN then the web site is supposed to ID you because you might be circumventing their local ID laws.

[–] limonfiesta@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I was replying specifically to your comment...

"It's actually quite trivial to detect most VPN providers. There's publicly available IP lists..."

None of that has anything with what I'm suggesting, or why I suggested it.

I've explained the rationale in other comments, but this is an action of protest, not a technical response or workaround to the law.

If Utah passed the stupid law, you have to inconvenience Utah voters, and to do that, websites should block all Utah IP addresses. Making clear to their users that due to the new regulatory framework, they're no longer doing business in Utah.

If that upsets people in Utah, they can reach out to their representatives to ask why they voted to ruin the internet in Utah.

[–] baronvonj@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago

you originally said

they cannot tell who's using a VPN

I was replying to that specific statement only. Lists of IP ranges are updated regularly and publicly available. Web sites hosted in Utah will have to make use of them to ID check visitors to comply.

I agree with you that web sites hosted outside of Utah should just block Utah IP addresses with a "contact your representative" message."