Hailstorm⛈ Your Great Destroyer 🏹

You give your full name, bank details, home address, a phone number, an email address. But send a photo of your face… that’s to far.

‼️🇺🇸 Utah is about to become the first US state to legally target VPN use as part of online age verification. The law goes into effect Wednesday, May 6, 2026. 🔴 If you are physically located in Utah, you count as a Utah user, regardless of whether you use a VPN, proxy, or any other tool to disguise your location. Websites are now legally responsible for age-verifying you anyway. 🔴 Sites that handle "material harmful to minors" are banned from sharing instructions on how to use a VPN, or from offering any means to bypass geofencing. The EFF calls this a "liability trap." Websites cannot reliably tell where a VPN user actually is, so the safest legal move is either to block every known VPN IP outright, or to force ID-based age verification on every visitor worldwide. Either path subjects millions of users to invasive identity checks, regardless of where they actually live. The Cato Institute put it bluntly. When a policy can be defeated by a privacy tool millions of people legitimately use, the policy is the problem. The collateral damage is, as always, the people who actually need VPNs: 🔴 Journalists protecting sources 🔴 Domestic abuse survivors hiding from stalkers 🔴 Activists in hostile environments 🔴 Remote workers tunneling into corporate networks 🔴 Travelers banking from abroad 🔴 Anyone who simply does not want their ISP, employer, or data brokers reading their traffic This is not staying in Utah. The UK's Children's Commissioner has called VPNs a "loophole that needs closing." France's Minister Delegate for AI and Digital Affairs has named VPNs as "the next topic on my list." The EU is rolling out age verification across all 27 member states by end of 2026, with EVP Henna Virkkunen openly admitting they have no plan for VPN bypass yet. Utah is leading by example. EFF: "Attacks on VPNs are, at their core, attacks on the tools that enable digital privacy."

17 years ago today started the trajectory of the person I am today. I truly think who I am, what i value, how I respond was all formed by this loss in my life.

who carried Karasuno the hardest?

*No more EBT for Soda or Candy* *7-Eleven begins aggressively closing stores* *Realize 7-Eleven was subsidized*

The Illinois law (HB 5511) which would require Operating Systems to add Age Verification has passed the Illinois House of Representatives and is now moving to the State Senate. The vote was 82 to 27 in favor of the law. HB 5511 is sponsored entirely by a group of 11 Democrat Representatives (no Republicans), and was voted for by every Democrat in the Illinois House (as well as a small number of Republicans). All 27 law makers who voted “Nay” on this bill were Republicans. This law was pitched specifically as a “Children’s Social Media” bill, but is heavily focused on all “Internet connected Operating Systems” One unique part of this law, when compared to other “Operating Systems Age Verification” laws, is that it provides an exemption to some of the age requirements… if the Operating Systems provides a paid “Family Account Platform”. The idea is that a parent could create an umbrella “Family” account which would then treat all sub-members of that account (including kids) as having the same age as the parent who created the account. For example: the OS would report that a 7 year old is really 37 (or whatever age the parent is). But this is *only* allowed when such a “Family Account Platform” is a paid feature. It cannot be free. In other words: Age verification for your kids, on all computers, unless you pay. Then your kids are the same age as you. Peculiar. The bill is now waiting to be picked up by a Senate committee. This is not likely to happen before April 28th, when the Illinois Senate is back in session.