Utah's New Law to Severely Impact VPN Users, First State-Level Legislation of Its Kind Raises Privacy Concerns
Starting next week, Utah will become the first U.S. state to impose restrictions on VPN users, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). This change comes three years after the state implemented an age verification system for adult websites, which led to a surge in VPN usage.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed Senate Bill 73 (SB 73) on March 19th, containing two key provisions that could make VPN use extremely complicated. First, the law stipulates that anyone physically located in Utah is considered to be accessing websites from Utah, regardless of any software they use to alter their apparent location. This creates a significant legal liability trap for websites, potentially forcing them to block all VPN users outright or to forcibly implement age verification for every visitor, regardless of their actual location. The second provision prohibits commercial entities hosting "a substantial amount of material harmful to minors" from promoting or encouraging the use of VPNs to circumvent age checks.
While the bill does not explicitly ban VPN products, it could significantly reduce their effectiveness in bypassing the state's required website age checks. The Electronic Frontier Foundation commented that the internet is inherently capable of circumventing censorship, and if Utah succeeds in restricting commercial VPN service providers, motivated users will turn to non-commercial proxies, private tunnels built through cloud platforms like Amazon Web Services, or residential proxies that are almost indistinguishable from ordinary home traffic. These workarounds will emerge within hours of the law taking effect.
The organization warns that these provisions won't stop tech-savvy teenagers, but will certainly impact the privacy of every ordinary Utah resident who simply wants to protect their data from brokers or malicious actors. At the same time, collateral damage will fall on businesses, journalists, and abuse survivors who rely on commercial VPNs for basic data security.
Notably, the fact that the Utah Senate is dominated by Republicans is noteworthy, given that President Trump has frequently accused European countries of implementing similar measures aimed at reducing harm to children.