• Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 days ago

    You’re in Germany. If you do something illegal like downloading a movie and the police gets your IP during it, they can request your ISP to reveal your identity and charge you with a crime.

    If you use a VPN, your IP is the IP of the VPN company, and they’ll say “we have no idea which of our users did that request, they all use the same IP”.

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 days ago

      Aren’t VPN:s subject to exactly the same laws as ISP:s? My ISP only records precisely as much as the law requires and throws it away as soon as permitted.

      • Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        10 days ago

        Yep but your VPN wouldn’t be in Germany obviously, but in a country with less strict laws on which information have to be kept.

        • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 days ago

          To do business in the EU, surely they still must follow EU regulations even if they’re seated in another country. Just like with the cookie warnings that the entire world has had to adapt to.

          • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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            10 days ago

            the entire world didnt have to adapt to them, the EU has no regulatory power over websites operated outside the EU, but most websites just simply found it easier to do so, because of the fear that not doing so might turn visitors away, and to sites that do comply.

            Just like how USB-C has become the universal charger connector for phones… its not because the EU demanded it for the world, they just demanded it for their markets, and rather than create phones with USB-C for the EuroZone, and other phones for a different charger for the rest of the world… they just push out USB-C for everything everywhere as a cost savings (for them, compared to having to run a second line for a different charger)

            • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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              10 days ago

              I find that hard to believe. There are several US websites that have blocked the EU entirely because they don’t want to spend resources on following EU regulations. If what you say is true it would be more beneficial for them to just not do anything. Getting fewer EU visitors is better than getting none at all.