Proton VPN also evacuates its servers from Indian territory

Last of a growing list, Proton-VPN announced it was moving its servers from India due to a new cybersecurity law.

In response to the proclamation of a law mandating the prolonged retention of personal information of its users in India, Proton VPN announced that it was relocating its servers out of the country. The VPN of Swiss origin should however remain accessible to Indian Internet users.

CERT-In regulations scare away VPNs

Proton VPN is only the latest in a long list to withdraw its servers from India: it thus imitates Surfshark, Express VPN and even NordVPN. This exodus of virtual private network providers is caused by the adoption, last April, of new regulations on cybersecurity by the government of New Delhi.

These directives notably require VPN companies to keep certain information about their users, including their IP address and name, for a period of 5 years, which is in total contradiction with the very objective of a VPN. Indeed, this service allows among other things to create an encrypted connection to the Internet from his computer, which helps to circumvent a number of national regulations relating to the Internet. This new law, therefore, removes for many the very interest of subscribing to such a service.

Andy Yen, CEO of Proton VPN, said in a statement that “ Proton has no intention of ever complying with these regulations or any mass surveillance laws. On the contrary, we are proud to develop technology that circumvents surveillance and censorship to provide access to a free Internet for everyone. It must be said that the defense of privacy, in addition to access to certain services available only in certain other countries, is generally the main argument that VPNs put forward to promote their services. Proton VPN, moreover, claims to keep almost no information about its users (only those they give at the time of their subscription).

Proton VPN remains available in India

If this new regulation led to the departure of the physical servers from the Indian territory, this should not have an impact for its customers who continue to reside there. The company, in fact, continues to offer its services to Indian customers. To achieve this, its engineers have developed a system that allows Internet users’ connections to pass through servers located in Singapore, but keeping an apparently Indian IP address.

In its press release, Proton VPN explains that this system makes it possible to circumvent Indian law and to access a secure Internet. And perhaps it will even allow it to avoid new misadventures, as in 2021, when French justice forced it to deliver certain IP addresses of its users, tarnishing its credibility.

Sources: Economic Times, Numerama, Money Control, Proton-VPN