Your privacy might get affected, with the changing policy for VPN usage

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure private network from a public internet connection. VPNs help you hide your internet protocol (IP) address so your online actions are virtually untraceable. A VPN encrypts your connection to provide greater privacy as it prevents others from seeing the data you’re transferring. It hides your digital activity, including the search history, links you click or the files you download. This also keeps your data secure from any spying attempts, hackers, and cybercriminals, particularly on free public Wi-Fi networks. There is a change in the policy for the Virtual Private Networks (VPN) users.

Virtual private networks, also known as VPNs, are a significant source of contention for governments attempting to monitor and regulate how the internet is used in their own countries. The new directive applies not only to VPN companies, but to cloud service providers, data centres and crypto exchanges, to collect specific, extensive customer data even after users delete their account or cancel their subscriptions. It says, VPN Companies will have to store user names, IP addresses, usage patterns and other related information and this also will check the Unauthorised access to social media accounts, as part of the directive. VPN services don't store logs of user activities and users usually use VPNs to hide their IP address from their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other third parties.

A VPN encrypts your network traffic and disguises your network identity using its servers all over the world. This makes it almost impossible for third parties to track your online activities and steal your data. Privacy is the main reason why people buy premium subscription plans from VPN providers but after the directive comes into effect, it may result in a loss in business for companies at the same time, some may have to stop operations in India. Individuals use virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent censorship, access restricted material, and escape monitoring; businesses use them for data security.

Going forward, public VPNs such as Surfshark, NordVPN, and ExpressVPN will find it difficult to comply with the new laws.To comply with Indian regulations, these VPN providers will have to adjust their business practices to render them less secure. The new VPN regulations in India will be effective from June. However, this will only be implemented haphazardly for the time being. Generally, VPNs are legal to use in most countries but some countries put restrictions citing "protection". The ISPs and governments find it hard to track and monitor the activities of VPN users and hence partial regulations or complete bans are often considered by countries.

A report says China made the use of all VPNs illegal, except for government-approved service providers. Countries like Belarus, China, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, Turkey, Turkmenistan, etc. have banned VPNs. While it's partially regulated in countries such as UAE. On the other hand, VPNs are legal in countries such as the USA, Australia, UK, Japan, etc.