It wasn't even a hack - the fucking clots literally just cc'd every journalist on the email instead of Bcc'ing them. This government knows nothing about tech and it's going to kill us - or at least substantially fuck us over - in the very near future.

Now that more information is coming out I have to say that I suspect I will be closing my account soon. Not because I want to. I love this place and the community. I've made some great friends and done things I never thought I would.
However, I do not feel comfortable sending some third party a copy of my passport or driving licence, or popping down to a shop and buying a pass. I'm pleased to see that it will be up to messmaster to decide what method he wants to use and will wait until he decides before making my own decision.

I fear a lot of us will end up having to delete, I don't feel comfortable either being added to some kind of register. In a world where people are hated, jailed, killed based on what or who they like, and the UK recently discussing whether gay family should be allowed to be talked about within school and the backlash that has caused, I'm not sure I feel comfortable being aligned to anything right now. What happens with those in more sensitive roles if there are data breaches and it's plastered everywhere what kind of LEGAL material you like? Yeah I know it's probably an overreaction, but given the amount of data breaches over the years, I wouldn't want to risk anything.

Also don't understand what this AV Gate stuff will achieve, if it will still be available on major social media & search engines. Just sounds like lining the pockets of a few giants who have screwed everyone over.

It's such a shame that this is happening, I live in the UK and I love being on UMD. Unlike a lot of others though, I don't give a shit really who has my info as long as they aren't going to commit fraud or something. I believe that this 3rd party company is going to be regulated by the government though, but I like many others wouldn't feel comfortable walking to a shop to buy a pass though, that's fucked up.

I am glad to see it will be up to messmaster to decide what he wants to do closer to the time, but I would really like to see some compliance, I love being on UMD, so many good people/good content creators and people that I do talk to regularly through here and I really don't want to be blocked from here, or have to go through the effort of sorting out a VPN (Though I could).

I think even saying the Govt will regulate it, they're just as useless at keeping information secure as the private sector. Shitstorm waiting to happen - and with the whole Brexit stuff bringing out far right extremism from the woodwork, making it a very wobbly time to be anything but 'normal' at the moment.

Getting porn passes from the shops is ridiculous though, how the heck will that play out haha. Though back in the days before the Internet, I guess people had to get their dirty mags and vids from somewhere

I bet you that VPN will become a huge premium in the months to come - supply & demand, paying a fortune for potentially crap connectivity & caps because everyone will want their anonymity back (or what we think is anonymity...)

Rollout is apparently still going ahead but browser makers rolling out DNS encryption might scupper the whole idea.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/781246/porn-block-dns-doh-encryption-internet-browsers-google-mozilla-digital-economy-act/

The trouble with living here in the UK is there are far too many people sticking their noses in creating problems when there are none. As far as I'm concerned providing things don't involve, children, animals, or people being forced to do things they don't want then where's the problem!
Most of our so-called 'betters', MP's, Judges, and the like are some of the worst offenders, if you don't believe me then watch a film called 'preaching to the perverted', it's actually based on real life!
There are also a lot of people over here who think they know a lot, but actually know very little of the important stuff. For instance, there was great delight when being homosexual finally stopped being illegal, there was even more when gay men were allowed to marry, some saw this as an acceptance of gays, however, what they failed to realise is that there is a certain law that is still on the books that could, if used allow nearly all gay men to be locked up!
the law in question states that, while consenting gay men over the age of consent, may, should they chose, engage in homosexual acts, it is an offence, should these acts take place in any premise containing more that 2 people.
So taken at it's ultimate imagine a gay couple go on holiday, now just like anyone else they will probably engage in sexual activity in the privacy of their hotel room. Now although they are in private, because they are in a hotel, which by it's nature is occupied by other people, then they are, in fact committing an offence, and could be liable for prosecution!
What pisses me off is how a lot of people see everything yet do nothing about what really matters, the number of people who for example stare at my wife when she's dressed up, for example, we go out and she happens to be wearing her wetlook leggings and long boots, our neighbours will notice what she's wearing and some make comments, yet these same people see absolutely nothing when you're car gets broken into, in a nutshell, there are far too many people getting all worked up over things of little importance, whilst ignoring things that do!

Totally agree, my last phone provider (o2) used to block some ridiculous content on my phone during searches as it was 'adult', quite often it was work related, just how websites to do with power generation or heavy machinery is porn is beyond me. Anyway they said that to remove the block I had to put in my card details, they'd remove 10p from my bank account to prove it worked and that would prove I was over 18, then they'd knock 10p off my next bill.
They were a little upset when I pointed out that I had a pay monthly contract with them, which as it is a credit account means you have to be over 18 to operate,otherwise it's illegal. Therefore since I had this account there was in fact no need for me to place my card details anywhere online, I'd already proved I was over 18.

Opera already has a VPN setting.

Just go to the settings and turn on VPN. Unblocks all blocked websites I've tried.

From a personal perspective, the freedom and openness of the internet helped me to get over the main issue I had when I was younger, before the internet, I had a WAM fetish, but I didn't know what it was, this caused me untold harm as a teenager, I was very damaged and self destructive as a result.
The internet helped me to identify and accept myself, leading a much healthier self image.


Who's doing the harm?

Wow...I can relate to that too. When I discovered it on the internet, I finally realized that at least I wasn't alone.