VPNs May Soon Get Banned In India

Virtual Private Network (VPN) services may soon face a ban in India. The Parliamentary Standing Committee On Home Affairs reportedly requested the Indian government to ban the VPN services in the country as it is a threat to counter cybercrime and other illegal activities.

According to Medianama, the committee has pointed out that VPN tools and apps are easily available online, allowing many people including criminals to remain anonymous online.

For people who are unaware, VPN creates a secure connection between user and Internet Service Provider (ISP) where the traffic gets routed through an encrypted channel. It hides the user’s IP address and location. This allows users to be anonymous in terms of location.

The committee further stated that it wants to implement the ban with the help of each and every Internet Service Provider in India.

The committee asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to coordinate with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to find and permanently block VPN tools.

It also asked the government to strengthen surveillance and tracking tools to trace VPNs and avoid the emergence of such new tools and put a check on the use of the dark web.