Now people only need to connect this to age sniffing and the global corporate-driven movement to destroy and abolish VPNs. Politicians are no longer working for the people but their own money - aka by definition these are lobbyists.

Note that "scanning a QR code and sending a text message" means, for the most part, a smartphone. One could do so via a tablet too, I suppose, but most who register will do so via their smartphone device. For some reason accessing the www is increasingly tied to "identify now!". This is a huge contrast to the freedom of the 1990s. I don't think we should accept that.