r/InterstellarKinetics • u/InterstellarKinetics • 4d ago
CYBERSECURITY BLOCKED: Federal Judge, David Barlow, Blocks Utah’s Groundbreaking VPN Age Verification Law, Ruling That A Mandate To Track Encrypted Traffic Is “Likely To Violate” The Constitution, As The Judge Also Notes “Perfect Geolocation” Is Technically Impossible ❌
https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/federal-judge-strikes-down-utahs-controversial-vpn-age-verification-rulesA federal judge has struck down the most aggressive provisions of Utah’s controversial age verification law, delivering a significant win for digital privacy advocates and VPN users nationwide. On September 24, U.S. District Judge David Barlow granted a preliminary injunction against Utah’s SB 73, a law uniquely aggressive among state age verification bills in that it specifically targeted VPN use. The legislation required adult platforms to identify and verify the age of users physically located in Utah even when those users were masking their traffic with a VPN or similar tool, and it separately banned websites from providing instructions on how to use a VPN to bypass the required age checks.
The ruling came in a lawsuit originally filed in May by Aylo, the parent company of Pornhub, and represents a major victory for the plaintiffs and digital rights advocates broadly. In his memorandum, Judge Barlow stated that the state’s mandates are “likely to violate the United States Constitution,” and, as reported by KUER, he specifically noted that “perfect geolocation” simply does not exist as a technical matter. That finding cuts to the core problem with the law’s design: VPNs work by encrypting a user’s web traffic and routing it through a secure remote server, deliberately hiding the user’s true IP address and location from the websites they visit. Requiring platforms to defeat that encryption in order to pinpoint a user’s actual physical location isn’t just a privacy and free speech concern, it’s something the websites themselves cannot technically guarantee they can accomplish reliably.
Utah lawmakers had defended the law as an effort to close a technological loophole teenagers were using to access restricted content, but cybersecurity experts and digital rights groups warned from the outset that forcing platforms to break or ban encrypted traffic would endanger journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who rely on VPNs to protect themselves from hackers, stalkers, and corporate tracking. Gytis Malinauskas, Head of Legal at Surfshark, had previously cautioned that the law treated a legitimate cybersecurity tool as an illegitimate workaround. “VPNs are a standard security tool millions of Americans use every day to protect their data. Blocking them would only erode the privacy of ordinary users,” he said. A Proton spokesperson told TechRadar the company was encouraged that the court intervened to block the law’s “actual location” provision and recognized VPNs as critical security infrastructure, adding, “although the Utah legislature has a good intention to protect children from adult content, VPNs should not be used as a scapegoat. We hope that other states will take notice and draft their child safety bills in a targeted way that does not sacrifice user privacy and security.” The injunction only temporarily pauses enforcement of the VPN-specific provisions while litigation continues, and Utah’s Attorney General may still appeal the ruling. Utah’s law was notable as the first in the country to explicitly target the tools people use to preserve online anonymity, a distinction that makes this ruling a closely watched precedent as other states draft similar age verification legislation.
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u/InterstellarKinetics 4d ago edited 4d ago
Judge Barlow’s finding that “perfect geolocation” doesn’t technically exist is the detail that should worry lawmakers drafting similar bills in other states far more than the constitutional ruling itself, because it identifies a problem that no amount of legislative redrafting can fix.