"everybody who's out there thinking of using VPNs, let me just say to you directly, verifying your age keeps a child safe...So let's just not try and find a way around. Just prove your age." - UK government.

WHOA: Could Germany Ban Ad Blockers? German megapublisher Axel Springer is asking a German court to ban an ad-blocker. They claim HTML/ CSS of their sites are protected computer programs. And influencing they are displayed (e.g by removing ads) violates copyright. I'm in puzzled wonderment at this claim. Preventing ad-blocking would be a huge blow to German cybersecurity and privacy. There are critical security & privacy reasons to influence how a websites code gets displayed. Like stripping out dangerous code & malvertising. Hacking risks from the online advertising are documented. Any attempt to force Germans to run all of the code on a website without consideration for their privacy and security rights and needs will end very, very poorly. Defining HTML/CSS as a protected computer program will quickly lead to absurdities touching every corner of the internet. Just think of the potential infringements: -Screen readers for the blind -'Dark mode' bowser extensions -Displaying snippets of code in a university class -Inspecting & modifying code in your own browser -Website translators Or blocking unwanted trackers. This is why most governments do it on their systems. I'm not a lawyer, but if Axel Springer wins the consequences are just nuts: Basic stuff like bookmarking & saving a local copy of a website might be legally risky. The Wayback Machine & internet archives and libraries might be violators. This might even extend to search engines displaying excerpts of sites. Code sharing sites like GitHub could become a liability minefield... The list goes on and on. Finally, only one country has banned ad-blockers. China. This is not good company for Germany. READ MORE: From Mozilla

Open Policy & Advocacy

Is Germany on the Brink of Banning Ad Blockers? User Freedom, Privacy, and Security Is At Risk. – Open Policy & Advocacy

Across the internet, users rely on browsers and extensions to shape how they experience the web: to protect their privacy, improve accessibility, b...

Bleeping Computer:

BleepingComputer

Mozilla warns Germany could soon declare ad blockers illegal

A recent ruling from Germany's Federal Supreme Court (BGH) has revived a legal battle over whether browser-based ad blockers infringe copyrigh...

NEW: UK reportedly drops secret demand for Apple encryption backdoor. Good. While there was strong activist pressure here the key push came from the US government. But there is zero rest for the weary as the UK has been leaning much harder into Age Verification. Which is another mechanism for gaining deep visibility into peoples online activity. Story:

The Verge

UK drops demand for backdoor into Apple encryption

Here’s hoping that ADP returns to the UK.

Location tracking based on interior pictures. It will be abused to target people. Post the inside your place at your peril.

Earliest days of vibecoding-as-a-target. Without a radical increase in security, vibecoders will get wiped out & lose their savings. And their companies will get hit with fat breaches. Me? I'm waiting for attackers to figure out how to reliably slip backdoors into vibecoded outputs at scale.