Are VPNs legal?

VPNs have a mixed reputation, primarily because you can use the technology to hide your location and identity on the internet. Even the best VPNs can be used to conceal crimes and make the perpetrators harder to track. Fortunately, most of the world's governments (at least for now) recognize that VPNs are just technology that can be used for good or ill.

That means VPNs are legal in almost every country in the world. The countries that do restrict VPNs tend to be those where internet freedoms are already curtailed, like Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. There are distinct gradations between those nations, though. And the days of worry-free VPN access elsewhere in the world is starting to show cracks: Currently free jurisdictions — including the UK, France and even several US states — are now considering bans.

Is it legal to use a VPN?

The answer is almost always yes. In every country except the ones listed in the next section, there are no legal penalties for visiting a VPN website, downloading a VPN or connecting to a VPN server.

In the last few years, however, some countries that were once beacons of online liberty have started considering bans. This is part of a chain reaction that started with age verification laws for websites deemed harmful to children, most prominently the UK's Online Safety Act. Once everyone realized that anyone could circumvent the OSA by using a VPN server in another country, UK politicians began trying to ban VPNs as well. The same thing is currently happening in France. In the US, Wisconsin and Michigan are both proposing age verification laws and VPN bans.

For now, though, none of these VPN bans have passed into law. Some have been defeated by the coordinated efforts of activists, including one Swiss proposal that would have forced Proton VPN to relocate.

In countries that do ban or restrict VPN usage, the laws can take several forms. Some countries have made all VPNs unlawful to use. Others only allow VPNs approved by the government — approval which usually comes from agreeing to share information with law enforcement. In some other countries, it's legal to use a VPN, but you'll face extra penalties if you use one to commit a crime. I'll go through all these categories in the next section.

Where are VPNs illegal?

This section is a complete list of countries where using a VPN is a legal risk. If a country isn't on this list, you can assume it's safe to use a VPN. Even nations with bad internet freedom scores, like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, often don't have anti-VPN laws to avoid scaring off international business.

One more important note is that anti-VPN laws are much more likely to be enforced against locals than foreigners. I'm not saying you should tempt fate, just noting that there are very few cases of a traveler being prosecuted in another country solely for using a VPN.

Countries where VPNs are totally banned

VPNs are completely outlawed in four countries. Three of them — Belarus, Turkmenistan and North Korea — are isolated authoritarian regimes that restrict internet freedoms as part of nationwide crackdowns on all civil and political liberties. Iraq, while slightly more liberal overall, banned VPNs in 2014 in an attempt to kick the Islamic State off the internet. Twelve years later, the ban remains in place.

Uganda is a special case. In 2018, the African nation enacted the world's first social media tax, which the government called necessary to raise funds but which was criticized as a backhanded assault on free speech. VPNs can get around the tax, so Ugandan internet service providers (ISPs) are required to block VPN traffic. However, there's no law on the books against using a VPN, so as long as you bring a service with obfuscation (like NordVPN) you're good to go.

Countries where only approved VPNs are allowed

More common than banning VPNs altogether is restricting VPN usage to those approved by the government. This lets the powers that be grant limited VPN access to businesses for economic reasons, while also being able to yank it away as a method of control. It also means VPNs with a license to operate are likely to report data or install surveillance backdoors.

The nations that handle VPNs this way are China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Bahrain, Myanmar, Pakistan, India, Turkey and Oman. These countries don't ban all VPNs, but target popular providers with intermittent crackdowns and threats.

China in particular uses the so-called Great Firewall, the world's most sophisticated suite of censorship technologies, to prevent its citizens from even visiting the homepages of VPN companies. If you plan to travel in China and want to maintain access to the outside world, download a VPN before you go — and remember that using it while there will technically put you in violation of the law.

Russia is a textbook case of a selective VPN ban, with businesses allowed to use approved VPNs and everyone else left to scramble against periodic mass blocks. Turkey's autocratic government has also tried to crack down on VPN usage by blocking VPN sites, but clumsy implementation has left a lot of holes, allowing Instagram and other social media to remain a free speech lifeline for Turks.

Countries with extra penalties for using VPNs to view blocked websites

In a few countries, it's legal to use any VPN, but against the law to use them for illegal activities. You might say, "Duh, I'm aware that breaking the law is illegal," but there is a meaningful difference — some crimes are crimier than others. Just like you'll get a much harsher sentence if you rob someone with a weapon, you'll face steeper penalties for using a VPN to view content the government is trying to block. Countries that operate like this include Vietnam, Egypt and the UAE. 

Potential future VPN bans

Today, a number of countries once considered free and tolerant are proposing wide-ranging age verification laws, usually for reasons that boil down to "think of the children!" If enacted — as the UK’s Online Safety Act has shown — they effectively offer a choice between two equally unacceptable alternatives: Live with a censored version of the internet, or get broader access only once you sacrifice your online anonymity.

VPNs are the easiest and most direct workaround to this rising tide of censorship, which is why those same governments have them in their legislative crosshairs. The threat of enforcement chills free activity in a connected world where enforcers can't be everywhere at once.

For now, laws against VPN usage are still largely vague, inconsistent and unevenly applied. As citizens, we can work to make our voices heard and fight against these initiatives before they become law. In the meantime, you may well want to get install your VPN of choice on as many devices as possible — and get your other cybersecurity ducks in a row while you’re at it.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/are-vpns-legal-170000878.html?src=rss