GDPR Workaround?

June 18, 2018 6:53 AM

Since the European GDPR rules kicked in last month, I am discovering a lot of US news sites that won't let me access their content from Europe. Unfortunately, my client is American and I really need access to those sites for research. Do I need a VPN or can you think of any other workarounds that would make these sites think I am in the US? I am not trying to defraud anyone, btw, just trying to keep my gig going.
posted by Bella Donna to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

The best answer is to use a VPN.

I use PIA, but look around and find one you're comfortable with.
posted by Tiny Lee at 7:01 AM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

Seconding VPN. I use Mullvad.
posted by gregr at 7:05 AM on June 18, 2018

I use Opera browser which has a rudimentary VPN built-in. The VPN toggle is right in the URL address bar, so easy-peasy in terms of turning it on and off as neccessary.
posted by romakimmy at 7:12 AM on June 18, 2018 [2 favorites]

VPN, but also the cheapest of shell accounts plus ssh plus SOCKS proxy forwarding... does the browser thing without the whole VPN thing. Depends on what you're looking for. You can probably have a single browser instance or tab set to proxy via US without going VPN and making your whole machine pretend to be US. Totally doable.
posted by zengargoyle at 7:45 AM on June 18, 2018

Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far, all of which are helpful. zengargoyle, your answer is way too technical for me because I don't grok ssh plus SOCKS plus proxy forwarding. Does that mean I am too dumb to do that? Like, if it's just googling each term I can do that but I bet there is more involved than that... Which does not mitigate my gratitude in the slightest. Thanks!
posted by Bella Donna at 8:35 AM on June 18, 2018

ssh is secure telnet, basically (you get a command prompt on the machine you're connecting to). SOCKS is a way you can send web traffic over an ssh connection, so that the traffic appears to be coming from the machine you're ssh'ing into, which would need to be in the USA. It's definitely more involved than setting up a VPN but you can find a tutorial here.
posted by en forme de poire at 9:09 AM on June 18, 2018

... US news sites that won't let me access their content from Europe. Unfortunately, my client is American and I really need access to those sites for research. Do I need a VPN or can you think of any other workarounds that would make these sites think I am in the US?

You're not too dumb. This is a coin toss of whether you want to learn and deal with VPN solutions.... or whether you want to learn and deal with the exact thing you want. (without the bad of VPN which will do what you want, but more than you want .... IMHO not the thing you want, about equal in what you need to google...)

The thing is, most VPN are an on/off switch. Your whole computer is suddenly in another country. You are not evading or hiding your tracks or checking in to your home country while you're abroad. A VPN will mess with you in ways that you don't have to think about if you do SOCKS proxy instead.

A browser plugin for proxy switching, a ssh client for your OS (mac is easy, windows is probably PuTTY or such, not sure), a run of the mill US account.... You have a single browser tab that thinks it lives in the US.

Over your head, yes. Same way asking the question and VPN is over your head. :) Different paths of what you're going to have to learn to accomplish your question. I'm not sure which is easier, I know which is best....

Should you wish to try... I'll totally throw up an ssh account for you to see if you can figure out how to do it before you decide one way or another.

It's more of a coin toss. Making a VPN do just the thing you want and not the thing it does (without brain) ... is about the same amount of brain that it takes to do the other thing which does exactly the thing you want.

you can actually do full VPN over ssh if you know how...
posted by zengargoyle at 12:25 PM on June 18, 2018

Honestly, I'd say the easiest thing to do that requires the least amount of setup and hassle (assuming you are able to install your own software on the computer you're using) is to install Opera and use its built-in VPN like romakimmy suggested. You'll need to enable it in the browser settings, but it's very simple to use after that, and you can choose what region the source appears from.
posted by Aleyn at 2:04 PM on June 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

I would not argue against the Opera browser built-in VPN thing. Just the full-blown VPN thing. If that sort of thing meets your needs... do that.
posted by zengargoyle at 2:25 PM on June 18, 2018