{"id":240962,"date":"2026-05-07T10:14:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T10:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:40:08","slug":"a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/07\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;A waste of money&#8217; \u2014 Digital rights group slams Utah&#8217;s new &#8216;impossible by design&#8217; VPN restrictions under controversial age verification law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law\">&#8216;A waste of money&#8217; \u2014 Digital rights group slams Utah&#8217;s new &#8216;impossible by design&#8217; VPN restrictions under controversial age verification law<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law\">https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-07 10:14:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.techradar.com\">www.techradar.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul id=\"elk-7d2ea37e-a34e-41f4-b679-f5ff5ef3367a\">\n<li><strong>Utah&#8217;s SB 73 law targeting VPN users has officially gone into effect<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Fight for the Future has slammed the legislation as a &#8220;waste of money&#8221;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The digital rights group also argues it&#8217;s &#8220;impossible by design&#8221; to enforce<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"elk-93afc442-c386-4439-bab1-6f9e465e01dc\">Utah is making history as the first US state to enact a law specifically targeting virtual private networks, but digital rights advocates are furious.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation, known as SB 73, officially went into effect on May 6. It aims to crack down on residents utilizing the VPN services to bypass state age verification mandates.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-93afc442-c386-4439-bab1-6f9e465e01dc-2\">However, digital rights group Fight for the Future is pulling no punches. In a fiery statement shared with TechRadar, the group dubbed the law &#8220;a waste of money,&#8221; while slamming the state for passing legislation that fundamentally misunderstands how the internet works.<\/p>\n<p>        <span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Utah just became the first state in the US to target VPN usage, and they are embarrassing themselves,&#8221; stated Lia Holland, Campaigns and Communications Director at Fight for the Future.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Fight for the Future launched a major initiative to defend VPN access, highlighting that everyone from abuse survivors to small businesses relies on these tools to stay secure.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"what-is-the-utah-vpn-law-and-why-are-experts-so-angry-3\">What is the Utah VPN law and why are experts so angry?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-7ec78f56-a8e2-47bc-b0da-6a01c40cce63\">The bill&#8217;s most controversial element is Section 14, which explicitly states that individuals are considered to be accessing a website from Utah if they are physically there, &#8220;regardless of whether the individual is using a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means to disguise or misrepresent the individual&#8217;s geographic location to make it appear that the individual is accessing a website from a location outside this state.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Holland, these requirements have &#8220;paragraphs that read like AI slop&#8221; because they mandate the impossible.<\/p>\n<p>A reputable Virtual Private Network (VPN) protects your privacy by completely encrypting your traffic and hiding your real IP address&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/vpn\/vpn-privacy-security\/a-waste-of-money-digital-rights-group-slams-utahs-new-impossible-by-design-vpn-restrictions-under-controversial-age-verification-law\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;A waste of money&#8217; \u2014 Digital rights group slams Utah&#8217;s new &#8216;impossible by design&#8217; VPN&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240963,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/K2LjA5ZcAxZ4BXMaK3jF27-1920-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240964,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240962\/revisions\/240964"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}