India’s new VPN policy, which mandates VPN providers to collect and store user data, is seemingly backfiring as companies continue to take down their servers in the country. Last week, we saw ExpressVPN shut down its India-based servers as it refused to comply with the new law. Now, Surfshark, another leading name in the VPN sector in India, has announced to take down its Indian servers. Check out the details right below!
Surfshark VPN Shuts Down Indian Servers
Surfshark officially announced the decision to shut down its Indian servers and switch to virtual ones via a blog post. The company said that it “proudly operates under a strict ‘no logs’ policy” and India’s new law for VPN services cannot budge it from its core values, that is providing privacy-focused features for its services.
Surfshark has confirmed that users will continue to gain Indian IPs via its India-based servers until the new law comes into effect, which will be on June 27. Following this, the company will switch to virtual Indian servers that will be physically located in Singapore or London. That said, Surfshark reiterated that users who rely on other servers will not be affected by the change.
To recall, India’s new VPN law mandates VPN providers in the country to log and store user data for up to 5 years. This legislation aims to reduce cyber crimes in India as authorities believe that most cyber criminals leverage VPN services to hide their identities online. You can know more about India’s new VPN Policy in our in-depth story.
However, Surfshark highlights that VPN providers taking down their servers in India is not a good sign for the country’s IT sector. The company cited its own data mentioning that out of 14.9 billion leaked accounts since 2004, 254.9 million belong to Indian users. The company also reiterated the fact that “taking such radical action that highly impacts the privacy of millions of people living in India will most likely be counterproductive and strongly damage the sector’s growth in the country. Ultimately, collecting excessive amounts of data within Indian jurisdiction without robust protection mechanisms could lead to even more breaches nationwide.”
Going forward, Surfshark wants to encourage discussions so that the Indian Government hears the arguments of the tech industry regarding the matter. So, stay tuned for further updates, and let us know your thoughts on the same in the comments below.
