![]() ![]() ![]() On top of this, virtual servers typically share hardware with other virtual servers, and thus the running costs aren’t as expensive as a VPN configured on a physical server. ![]() Surfshark and ExpressVPN both have virtual servers present in their networks serving users in other territories. They are often used by VPN companies to provide access to content in countries where the safety of their servers – and the user data being processed – cannot be guaranteed. For the end-user, virtual servers function identically to servers actually located in the country. This is possible because a server can be set up to dish out Indian IP addresses, for instance, without actually being located in India. India’s law has placed a new focus on the existence of virtual servers, which are servers run and managed by VPN companies outside of the countries they’re listed as being in. Now, they’ll have no local servers to reroute their internet connection through. In raw terms, that’s around 620 million people – almost double the entire population of the USA. Any VPN company still operating servers in India claiming to keep no logs will now either be breaking the law or lying to their customers.Īccording to Top10VPN, India has the second-highest rate of VPN usage in the world, with 45% of the population using the privacy-preserving technology in 2020 alone. The new directive comes into direct conflict with this, and essentially defeats the whole point of a VPN. In general, they aim to collect and hold as little information about users as possible. VPNs like PureVPN go to great lengths not only to hide users’ IP addresses but also to not collect any data on their traffic. The entire point of a VPN is that they mask your IP address and make it harder to trace your internet traffic back to your device. The order is the latest government action to contribute to the slow erosion of internet freedom in India, with the country’s population regularly subject to orchestrated internet blackouts, particularly during times of protest. As per the directive, such data must be held for at least five years. It requires all companies processing the data of Indian citizens in the country to hold onto information such as names, email IDs, and – most importantly in the context of VPNs – IP addresses. The policy was created by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is a wing of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The much-talked-about data collection directive is due to come into effect today. ![]() India’s Data Collection Law Enforced Today The position tacks closely to the one held by ExpressVPN, Surfshark, and NordVPN, who all provided a similar explanation for leaving India before the law came into effect. “While we do not collect any identifiable information from our users,” he continued, “we cannot operate physical servers in a country where we will be forced to change our operating methods and compromise our users’ privacy and security.” “We are a strict no-log company,” said Shaheryar Popalzai, Head of MarComm, PureVPN in a statement justifying the decision to remove its server infrastructure from the territory. Virtual servers have already been touted as a workaround to the heavy-handed legislation, but not all VPN companies leaving India have committed to setting them up. VPN companies have been leaving India in droves over the past few weeks because the new laws sanctioned by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology conflict directly with the no-logs policy that all legitimate VPN providers follow. VPN provider PureVPN has confirmed it is shutting down its India servers, thus avoiding the ramifications of the new data collection directive scheduled to come into effect in India on June 27th. ![]()
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