We know that the UK’s Online Safety Act has had a number of consequences including a surge in interest in the use of VPNs. But VPNs aren’t the only things that have seen greater interest.
New research from Comparitech shows more people are searching for fake IDs, how to access the dark web, and torrenting services. The company has recorded a 56 percent increase in impressions for blog posts related to the law and guides to using VPNs as a means of accessing restricted content.
The report also points out that the act risks undermining end-to-end encryption by requiring messaging services like WhatsApp and Signal to implement client-side scanning of user devices for prohibited content (such as CSAM) before messages are encrypted, effectively giving authorities a pathway to access private communications once the technology becomes ‘feasible’. 15 out of the 27 EU countries currently support a ‘Chat Control’ proposal, which would make it mandatory for messaging service providers to scan private messages for CSAM.
See also:
UK Online Safety Act sparks greater privacy awareness
Concerns mount around UK Online Safety Act
Elsewhere in the world eight out of 178 countries have fully banned VPNs, and a further 34 impose VPN restrictions, or have done so in the past.
Comparitech’s head of security research, Mantas Sasnauskas, has noted ripple effects across dark web forums and marketplaces with an increased interest in fake or leaked UK IDs. This is possibly seeking IDs for resale or large-scale identity fraud on the dark web, with one advertisement on the Breached forums offering 510 passports at no cost, likely sourced from a past data breach.
You can read more on the Comparitech blog.
Are you more concerned about online privacy? Let us know in the comments.
Image credit: Jefferson Santos/Unsplash
