Is VPN legal in India: what we can and cannot say

1The careful answer

We are a VPN seller and not a law firm, so we cannot tell you that something is legal for you. What can be said is narrower. We found no source for a general ban on private individuals using a VPN in India, and it is also true that the state has issued rules aimed at VPN providers. Laws differ by country and change, and you answer for your own use and for the terms of every service you use.

That is the end of what we can state as fact. Anything beyond it needs a lawyer who knows your situation.

2What the 2022 directions did

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) published directions on 28 April 2022, citing Section 70B of the IT Act. The directions were aimed at VPN providers, not at the people who use them, and they set out what providers were asked to keep about their customers. We have not been able to quote the wording of the original text here, so do not rely on any figure from this page and read the official text yourself.

3Why the service has no servers in India

None of our servers is in India, so we promise neither an Indian address nor reach into Indian services while you are abroad. The server list is Stockholm, Zurich, Osaka, Rotterdam and Singapore. Whether any rule applies to a service like ours is not something this page can settle.

A reader in India can still ask a lawyer whether the use they have in mind is fine; we cannot answer for them.

In practice that means three habits. Write down what you want the tool for before you install anything. Check whether a workplace, college or hostel network has its own policy on tunnels. And if the question has real consequences for you, such as a job or a contract, get advice from someone qualified to give it instead of relying on a seller's page like this one.

4What stays your responsibility

• Following the law of the place where you are connecting from.
• Reading the terms of every service you use, because a site can forbid access through a tunnel.
• Not using a VPN for fraud, harassment or other acts that are unlawful whatever the tool.
• Reading the news on rule changes from official sources rather than from a seller.

5A note on how the page was produced

Selling a VPN gives us a stake, so this page keeps to what the sources say and drops advice that might favour a sale. Editors compared the text with the sources below and with the service facts, after a language model produced the first draft. If you read a rule that has changed since then, trust the official text over this page.

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