NordVPN

NHS is the UK National Health Service

Averaged out over the last seven days.

https://archive.is/sfYWG

Nicholas Merrill received a hand delivered National Security Letter from the FBI in 2004, ordering him to give up data on one of his ISP customers.

Merrill opened it and read the letter while the agent waited. The first and second paragraphs told him he was hereby ordered to hand over virtually all information he possessed for one of his customers, identified by their email address, explaining that this demand was authorized by a law he’d later learn was part of the Patriot Act.

The third paragraph informed him he couldn’t tell anyone he’d even received this letter—a gag order.

He then fought a landmark, decade-plus legal battle against the FBI and the Department of Justice. As the owner of an internet service provider in the post-9/11 era, Merrill had received a secret order from the bureau to hand over data on a particular user — and he refused... and won.

After that, he spent another 15 years building and managing the Calyx Institute, a nonprofit that offers privacy tools like a snooping-resistant version of Android and a free VPN that collects no logs of its users’ activities.

Now the completely anonymous phone service. The full article is worth the read.

EDIT: Sorry I should have cross-posted. I forgot where I first saw the story: the Privacy community.

Halfway through he describes this as malicious compliance with the "right to repair" law. Apple and others are making a mockery of the law.

Meta "had exercised an unfair market advantage by extracting personal data of internet users in violation of European law and using it to create more effective advertising".

That's one helluva law.

facing fines of up to six percent of their annual worldwide revenue

3% may not sound much but this is on revenue, not profit.

Kind of funny. You've got to admire the audacity.

You have all heard of the DarkWeb. I present to you the LightWeb — not only a beacon of purity but a great investment opportunity (not).

Maybe the eSafety Commissioner should also ban people over 60 from accessing the internet.. for their own good.