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Comment by JCattheATM | Hacker News Reader

> Not everyone has the time and resources to battle their utilities and bank(s).

They do, they just don't want to. Typing a short letter and mailing it is very little effort. Less so with AI these days.

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An AI generated letter isn’t going to get my utility company to drop their explicitly chosen practice of blocking VPN’s.

These aren’t oversights, these are deliberate practices.

'AI generated' is irrelevant here, they wouldn't know and it's just a time saver in response to the 'people don't have enough time' excuse.

That's a weird one though, if you have alternatives you could always switch.

Not sure where you live but in much of California, there are no alternatives for most utilities. Water, gas, electric often only have one singular provider in many regions.

Fair enough, although barring VPN use is quite a bit different from forcing an app that requires Play Services or iPhone. A VPN isn't as legitimate a need to pay a utility bill in the same way paying without an Android or iOS phone can be.

My only alternative is to not have natural gas

I don’t see why not. It entirely depends on why someone needs a VPN. And I also shouldn’t need to justify it regardless.

> I don’t see why not. It entirely depends on why someone needs a VPN.

Nah, not really. Using a VPN is a luxury, a preference. You're arguing that using a VPN should be a right in a discussion about people not being forced to use specific Apple or Google services, which is an entirely different thing.

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