>Anyone who has browsed through one of these personal VPN services - or even a DIY VPN from a datacentre IP - for more than about 10 minutes will have experienced the increase in captcha's.
What's up with KYC "in accordance with German and European regulations" to use it?
A number of EU member states don't require any id/registration for prepaid (e)SIMs. How is that any of their concern if you're buying a profile from a 3rd party?
> As someone else mentioned, it's probably also true in Europe that a lot of people would see having WhatsApp as close to essential.
What are you referring to? While it may be the most popular messaging app, it's not in any way, shape, or form essential. SMS is also universal, mostly unlimited, and much less weirder than it is in the US.
I only know what Europeans tell me. I assume different people have different takes on what is essential. And my understanding is SMS can still be pricey. (Not sure what's weird about SMS in the US? It's on my phone. I use it. It can piggyback on iMessage but that's not necessary and is transparent, bubble color notwithstanding.)
Both outgoing and incoming SMS used to have charges but (AFAIK) all the major plans now include unlimited SMS. I think the US went to mostly "free" SMS before much of Europe did which probably explains WhatsApp becoming the most common thing. (The only people I use WhatsApp with from the US are international.)
> A lot of banks don't even have web interface and those they still do require you to install and link smartphone app to be able to log in or to pay with card online.
Which "classic" banks don't have online banking?
> While there might in theory be many second factors with different pros and cons, most bank only allow their own app and nothing else. The few stragglers that still allow text messages make it increasingly user hostile, e.g. rewrite 12 number code and enter special PIN, different from your normal PIN or just click a button in app!
I'm reasonably sure at least with most major Scandinavian banks you can use plain old OTP tokens.
> IMHO, generally speaking, Samsung SSD products are the best on the market.
There seems to be 870 EVO reliability issue going on for years now [1]. Shit happens, what matters is how you handle it. Samsung has yet to issue any public statement on the matter.
SIM swap attack is really baffling to me. Over here, even if someone gained access to your account and initiated porting, you still need to go the store and present your ID to complete it.
Social engineering is really powerful, since the people you are engineering usually have elevated access privileges. In the ID scenario, presumably there are fake ID providers one could use, although with facial recognition in common use, maybe that scenario becomes harder.
So has anyone behind random CGNAT.