Privacy

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Chinese programmer ordered to pay 1m yuan for using virtual private network (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A programmer in northern China has been ordered to pay more than 1 million yuan to the authorities for using a virtual private network (VPN), in what is thought to be the most severe individual financial penalty ever issued for circumventing China's "great firewall." The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the public security bureau of Chengde, a city in Hebei province, on August 18. The notice said Ma had used "unauthorised channels" to connect to international networks to work for a Turkish company. The police confiscated the 1.058m yuan ($145,092) Ma had earned as a software developer between September 2019 and November 2022, describing it as "illegal income," as well as fining him 200 yuan ($27).

Charlie Smith (a pseudonym), the co-founder of GreatFire.org, a website that tracks internet censorship in China, said: "Even if this decision is overturned in court, a message has been sent and damage has been done. Is doing business outside of China now subject to penalties?"

Abstract credit: https://slashdot.org/story/420019

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

It is saying that VPN use was the only excuse given by the authorities when he was "ordered to pay" them a large amount of money. While I don't know for certain that it's true, I still haven't seen anything here or elsewhere to contradict that.