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Worried About Censorship Online? This Group Urges ‘Leave VPNs Alone!’

Could there be a possible ban on VPNs soon? Here’s how one anti-censorship and surveillance group is fighting back.

«Leave VPNs alone.» That’s the plea from anti-online censorship and surveillance group Fight for the Future, which designated Sept. 25 as a VPN Day of Action to press lawmakers not to ban virtual private networks. A week later, there’s still an opportunity to get involved and raise awareness.

The group of activists, artists, engineers and technologists is asking people to sign an open letter encouraging politicians to preserve the existence of VPNs and «defend privacy and to access knowledge and information online.» Virtual private networks encrypt internet connections and can hide your physical location.

Joining the action on Thursday was the VPN Trust Initiative — comprised of NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN — and the VPN Guild, which includes Amnezia VPN.


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The open letter refers to recent «age-verification» laws propelling legislative moves to ban or restrict VPN usage. Such measures would lead to increased online surveillance and censorship, which «has a huge chilling effect on our freedoms, particularly the freedoms of traditionally marginalized people,» the letter notes.  

Fight for the Future’s purpose

Lia Holland, Fight for the Future’s campaigns and communication director, said VPNs are vital for «people living under authoritarian regimes» to avoid censorship and surveillance, and have become an essential tool in exercising basic human rights. 

Half of all US states have passed age-verification laws requiring internet users to prove their age with government-issued IDs, credit card checks and other methods. The laws have spurred consumers to sign up for VPNs to avoid giving out sensitive information, with one recent VPN sign-up spike in the UK.

Read more: Welcome to the Era of Online Age Verification. Are You Ready to Identify Yourself?

Michigan is considering a bill banning adult content online and VPNs. If it becomes law, Michigan would be the first US state to ban VPNs. Many countries, including China, India and Iran, already ban or heavily restrict VPNs.

«Amid a moral panic, ignorant ‘save-the-children’ politicians are getting very close to kicking the hornet’s nest of millions of people who know how important VPNs are,» Holland said. 

Could a VPN ban happen?

Banning VPNs would be «difficult,» according to attorney Mario Trujillo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international digital rights group.

Trujillo told CNET that VPNs are best for routing your network connection through a different network. «They can be used to help avoid censorship, but they are also used by employees in every sector to connect to their company’s network,» he said. «That is a practical reality that would make any ban difficult.»

Trujillo added that the US lags behind the rest of the world in privacy regulation, and that lawmakers should focus more on privacy than VPN bans. 

Read more: Our Top VPNs — It’s a Tight Race | Why You Need a VPN

Fight for the Future identifies local lawmakers and provides templates for contacting them. This information is on the same page as the open letter.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 3, #375

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 3, No. 375.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.


There are some enormously long clues in today’s Connections: Sports Edition. That might make it actually easier to solve than the days when it’s filled with generic short words that could fit in many categories. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Kick it.

Green group hint: Rare gridiron sights.

Blue group hint: Change the channel.

Purple group hint: Hail to the Chief.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Pro soccer leagues.

Green group: Football trick plays.

Blue group: Sports TV shows.

Purple group: Contains surname of a U.S. president.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is pro soccer leagues. The four answers are Bundesliga, MLS, Premier League and Serie A.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is football trick plays. The four answers are flea flicker, hook and lateral, Philly special and Statue of Liberty.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports TV shows. The four answers are Eastbound and Down, Friday Night Lights, Running Point and Ted Lasso.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is contains surname of a U.S. president. The four answers are A’ja Wilson, Cleveland Browns, Justin Jefferson and Washington Wizards.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Oct. 3

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Oct. 3.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s Mini Crossword does one of those crossword-puzzle things I hate: It connects clues together, so if you can’t solve one, you can’t solve the other just yet. In this case, three clues make up an outdated phrase that I don’t think anyone has spoken aloud since maybe the 1950s. Need help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: The fitting missing letters in _OOGLE MA_ _
Answer: GPS

4A clue: Amtrak express train
Answer: ACELA

6A clue: With 2- and 5-Down, distinction for kids who finish their whole dinner
Answer: CLEAN

7A clue: Desires, with «after»
Answer: LUSTS

8A clue: Honey Nut Cheerios mascot
Answer: BEE

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Silly» birds
Answer: GEESE

2D clue: See 6-Across
Answer: PLATE

3D clue: Without
Answer: SANS

4D clue: Knee tissue that’s prone to tearing, for short
Answer: ACL

5D clue: See 6-Across
Answer: CLUB

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Technologies

Stop Putting Off Cleaning Your iPhone’s Photo Library With This Easy Declutter Tool

You know that clearing your photo library will free up storage (on the iPhone and cloud storage), but who has the time? You will, with this easy to miss built-in tool.

When (not if) your iPhone starts to complain that it’s running out of storage space, the number one culprit is usually the Photos app. Your photo library is no doubt packed with beautiful photos…and snapshots of receipts, parking space numbers, discarded selfies and pet photos. 

Before you cave and pay Apple for more iCloud storage, you should know there’s a ridiculously easy fix already built into your phone. If you’re running iOS 16 or later, the Photos app has a magic little folder called «Duplicates.» It automatically rounds up all your identical and near-identical shots so you can delete them in one go. 

Instead of playing a painful game of spot-the-difference, you can reclaim a huge chunk of space with just a few taps. It’s the simple solution you’ve probably been ignoring.


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Apple introduced its «duplicate detection» feature in 2022, and it works just as its name suggests. The tool uses on-device AI to identify identical images and aggregate them in an easy-to-find album in the Photos app. Apple says the iPhone classifies duplicates not only as exact copies but also as photos that appear to be the same but have unique resolutions, file formats or other slight differences. That includes lower-resolution versions you may have saved to share on social media or even bursts of near-identical shots taken at the same time.

Here’s how to use the iPhone’s built-in tool to free up storage space:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone. 

2. In iOS 26, tap the Collections button. In earlier versions, skip to the next step.

3. Scroll down to the Utilities section and tap Duplicates. This is where you can view all the duplicate photos on your iPhone and delete them, either individually or at once. 

4. If you want to delete all the duplicates at once, tap the Select button, and then tap Select All. You can also remove them in groups of two or more: Tap Select in the top right corner and then tap the Select button to the right of the pairs.

5. Next, tap Merge [number] to merge all the duplicate photos your iPhone detects and send them to the trash.

If you want to delete duplicates individually, tap the Merge button that appears next to each pair. Then tap Merge [number] Copies to delete duplicates. Go down the line and repeat this step for all the identical photos you want to delete. 

Merging keeps the best version of the photo in your library. The duplicates are moved to the Recently Deleted album.

If you found this iOS feature helpful, check out CNET’s fast-track guide to iOS 26 features and 18 features you may have missed. For more advice on how to save space, read our full list of tips for clearing your iPhone’s storage.

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