VPN Providers Remove Servers From India In Wake Of New Data Collection Laws

VPN providers remain a primary target of governments around the world (authoritarian leaning and otherwise) that don't much like their citizens chatting privately or avoiding government surveillance. We watched it happen in Russia, where strict new data collection and retention rules resulted in a mass exodus of VPN providers (the ones that are actually dedicated to privacy and security, anyway).

VPN crackdowns are also occurring in purported democracies like India, after the government passed new cybersecurity rules requiring that VPN operators collect user names, email addresses and IP addresses, store it for five years, and furnish it to authorities on demand.

Since that defeats a major justification for even using a VPN and creates obvious legal headaches, VPN providers have been pulling their servers out of India over the last few months. This week they were joined by Proton VPN, which also says it's moving their India-based servers out of the country. They are, however, using smart routing servers to dole out Indian IP addresses:

Today, we're removing our VPN servers in India to protect the privacy of our community due to India's new surveillance law. However, we've rolled out smart routing servers to still give you an Indian IP address.

Read @andyyen's interview with @WSJ: https://t.co/5iIy1Di3mV

- Proton VPN (@ProtonVPN) September 22, 2022

Proton AG Chief Executive Andy Yen discussed the decision in a Wall Street Journal in the interview:

It's going to have a chilling effect. I find it really sad that the world's largest democracy is taking this path," Mr. Yen said. On paper India is supposedly taking a different path from China and Russia," where similar rules are in place, he said.

Granted the VPN industry isn't quite what it used to be. There's a laundry list of providers that don't actually adhere to their promises of no logging or data collection anyway. But for those that actually care about security and privacy, India's crackdown on an essential security and privacy tool, combined with harsh crackdowns on propaganda researchers and activists, is raising no shortage of red flags.

The company had more to say about the decision in this blog post, calling India's crackdown against everything we stand for."