[irusensei]

Question to UK people based on the responses I’m reading here.

If I, a privacy loving person were ever to migrate to the UK is it possible to have a as private and unrestricted anonymous internet as much of the rest of the sane world? Both this and previous thread mentioned some really ridiculous things like lifting restrictions through credit card or drivers license.

[kosikond]

Londoner here. On daily basis I don't _feel_ restricted on broadband, besides some thepiratebay and some other good old thorns in copyright industrial complex... But I know GCHQ is watching. So nextdns.io is my trusty friend, VPN is no problemo.

On phone I have EE MVNO and without VPN I get blocked pr0n, but not much else. Yes they wanted proof of ID despite having my Direct Debit details.

Personal note: But if you were to migrate to UK, probably not a good time this decade, the cost of living is hitting here hard, post-Brexit shambles are annoying and the compensation is not worth it anymore IMHO. Just the music scene is unbeatable, hence staying.

[sealeck]

> But I know GCHQ is watching

But we also know that they're watching everyone else (i.e. not in the UK) as well.

[callahad]

I moved from the US to the UK. I don't feel like my access is any different, aside from the many North American sites that block all European IPs for fear of the GDPR.

Notably, smaller ISPs tend to be exempted from the surveillance and censorship requirements. And you actually have a choice of ISPs, because infrastructure and service providers are kept separate, unlike the monopolies in the States.

So, for example, Andrews and Arnold ("AA ISP") tends to take a pretty strong stance as outlined at https://www.aa.net.uk/broadband/real-internet/. Very old-school, clueful hacker vibe. Hell, they even GPG sign their invoices.

They're also happy to proactively inform their customers about legislative corner cases, like how the overbroad legal definition of a "communications provider" allows customers to legitimately self-identify in such a way that compels A&A to discard copyright infringement notices (https://www.aa.net.uk/legal/legal-status-customers/).

There are legislative threats in the UK, like the recent Draft Communications Data Bill ("Snooper's Charter"), or government-funded campaigns against encrypted communications (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29955893). Those scare me. But thus far they've generally been beaten back, much the same as SOPA/PIPA were Stateside.

[AndrewDucker]

Sure, use a VPN.

[concordDance]

Yes. Tor.