{"id":188482,"date":"2022-06-04T20:59:29","date_gmt":"2022-06-04T15:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=188482"},"modified":"2022-06-04T20:59:29","modified_gmt":"2022-06-04T15:29:29","slug":"veiled-threats-to-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/veiled-threats-to-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Veiled threats to privacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Context<\/strong>: Cert-In recently issued a <span style=\"color: #000000;\">new directive <\/span>making it mandatory for VPN service providers to keep user data for at least five years and share records with authorities when required.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\">This new regulation <strong>threatens free speech and privacy.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<h5>What is a VPN?<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Read <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #0000ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/explained-why-vpn-providers-believe-new-rules-will-undermine-users-privacy\/\">here<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>What are the different use cases of VPNs?<\/h5>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\">By surfing through a VPN, <strong>users can mask a large proportion of personal data<\/strong>, obfuscate location, and conceal surfing patterns. This makes them useful to people with many different use-cases. <strong>For instance<\/strong>: They can be used by the following &#8211;<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> <strong>Human rights activists<\/strong> who don\u2019t wish to be tracked by hostile regimes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> <strong>Corporates<\/strong> seeking end-to-end encryption for communications. Also, in the WFH era, corporates routinely give a geographically widespread set of employees secure log-ins tied to a single VPN-based location<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> People who wish to <strong>access geo-blocked websites<\/strong>, and content. VPNs allow users to communicate privately, and to access websites that autocrats block. For instance: Russia, Iran and China block and ban VPNs, and hand out jail-time and fines for anybody caught using them.<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> People who wish to <strong>access online banking services only available to residents of a given country<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> Those who simply wish to <strong>protect their data<\/strong> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> People who want to <strong>access Netflix or Amazon Prime content from, let\u2019s say, Mexico<\/strong>, while sitting in Delhi.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\">VPN providers offer combinations of <strong>privacy<\/strong>, and <strong>data security<\/strong>. Most keep no logs of users, and maintain as little user-data as possible. <\/span><\/p>\n<h5><span class=\"p-content\">How does a VPN provide privacy and data security?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>Somebody who&#8217;s not using a VPN has an IP address, which translates to their location. This is <strong>visible to every website<\/strong> that the user visits. The internet service provider (ISP) can also track the surfing patterns of the user, enumerating every website that is visited.<\/p>\n<p>That is, if user X visits websites A, B, and C, the <strong>service provider knows<\/strong> all about it. Websites A, B, C also know where X is coming from, using which ISP, etc. If the ISP has instructions to block any given websites, it <strong>can prevent the user from going to those sites<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>User X also <strong>leaks other data and metadata<\/strong> to any website visited.<\/p>\n<p>When user X uses a VPN however, <strong>several types of masking happen<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> As far as the ISP is concerned, the VPN is the only site that X is visiting. The VPN <strong>re-routes and redirects the user<\/strong> to wherever, without informing the ISP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> Second, the <strong>IP address changes to that of the VPN<\/strong>, as far as any other website is concerned. If it\u2019s a good VPN, one also ceases to leak data in the same way.<\/p>\n<table style=\"border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 100%;\"><em><span class=\"p-content\">In 2021, about 20% of India\u2019s surfers used VPNs, up from around 3.3% in 2020.<\/span><\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h5><span class=\"p-content\">How have VPN providers responded?<br \/>\n<\/span><\/h5>\n<p>New directives by the govt not only<span class=\"p-content\"> run counter to the entire use case for VPNs, it is also technically impossible for many of them to comply with. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\">VPN servers are not only not configured to keep logs; they are often designed to actively delete logs. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"p-content\"><strong>Some VPN providers have already started walking out of India<\/strong>, which is no surprise.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201c<strong>Veiled threats to privacy<\/strong>\u201d published in the <strong>Business Standard<\/strong> on <strong>3rd June 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Cert-In recently issued a new directive making it mandatory for VPN service providers to keep user data for at least five years and share records with authorities when required. This new regulation threatens free speech and privacy. What is a VPN? Read here What are the different use cases of VPNs? By surfing through&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/veiled-threats-to-privacy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Veiled threats to privacy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10503,216],"class_list":["post-188482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700805871,"cached_date":1704846725},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188482\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}