Date: 03/09/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Science and Technology- developments and their applications and effects in everyday life.

Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Phrases: Virtual private networks, Cybercrime, Data Privacy, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Encrypted Connection, Computer Emergency Response Team, Prevent Data Throttling, Authoritarian governments, Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

Why in News?

• Major global providers of virtual private networks, which let internet users shield their identities online, are shutting down their servers in India to protest new government rules they say threaten their customers’ privacy.

What is Virtual Private Network?

• A virtual private network, or VPN, is an encrypted connection over the Internet from a device to a network.
• VPN establishes an encrypted connection between the user’s computer and the internet, providing a private tunnel for their data, making them anonymous and blocking anyone from tracking their movements like where they are going or what they are doing.
• It is the IP address i.e. a special number of unique user’s internet network, that helps websites, law enforcement agencies, cybercriminals or anyone else look into an individual’s internet activities and track down their accurate location.
• VPN is a service that helps internet users stay private online by hiding their IP addresses.
• Without a VPN, the user’s IP address is visible to the web. VPNs obscure the user’s internet usage by jumping the signal off multiple servers.

Benefits of Virtual Private Network:

• Secure the Network:
  • It prevents unauthorized people from eavesdropping on the traffic and allows the user to conduct work remotely. VPN technology is widely used in corporate environments.
• Hide Private Information:
  • VPN is used to hide location as well as encrypt information being transferred between the sender and receiver.
  • VPNs typically allow users to mask their location and identities by encrypting and routing their traffic through “tunnels” between their services and customers’ computers.
• Prevent Data Throttling:
  • The encrypted connection helps ensure that sensitive data is safely transmitted.
  • VPN also helps companies, government agencies, and individuals encrypt data transmitted over the internet. It prevents any snooping and information tapping by external sources while the data is in transit.

VPN New Regulations:

• According to a directive from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s cyber arm Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), VPN companies have to record personal information that must include names, addresses, contact numbers, and email addresses of customers hiring the services, period of hire, IPs allotted to them, the purpose for hiring services and ownership pattern of the customers for a period of five years.
• The mandate applies to Virtual Private Server (VPS) providers, VPN service providers, cloud service providers, and data centres.
• In addition to that, the government is also asking VPN providers to keep a record of users’ IP addresses and their email used to register the service, along with the timestamp of registration.
• Further, VPN providers are also required to maintain a list of all IP addresses issued to a customer and the IP addresses that their customers generally use.

Concerns of VPN companies related to new rules:

Some of the services withdrawing companies from India say:

• By collecting such data, the companies will imperil their users’ privacy and curtail online speech.
• The government’s rules amount to overreach and are more typical of those imposed in China or Russia than in democracies.
• Such rules are typically introduced by authoritarian governments in to gain more control over their citizens. If democracies follow the same path, it has the potential to affect people’s privacy as well as their freedom of speech.
• The government’s move severely undermines the online privacy of Indian residents.
• Complying with the regulations would mean VPN companies will cease to provide their core service—privacy and security—and lose their basic functionality or purpose.

Why government brought these regulations?

• India’s Computer Emergency Response Team has said the new rules are needed to tackle cybercrime and defend the “sovereignty or integrity of India” and the security of the state.
• One of the main reasons that Cert-In provided for seeking these details is that it will help to effectively trace anti-social elements and cybercriminals indulging in various nefarious activities online.
• These details are necessary to prevent incitement or commission of any “cognisable offence using computer resources or for handling of any cyber incident” which may lead to any disturbance in the “sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order”.

Way forward:

• While the government’s security needs are understandable, banning VPN services is not good. Asking VPN service providers to comply with the rules or exit India in case of non-compliance with rules, is not a good move.
• The Centre can, however, take other measures to ensure that cyber criminals do not hide behind a VPN platform. This can be done through a consultative process with VPN players and global law enforcement agencies. Rules can be framed that put the onus on VPN service providers to keep their platforms safe.
• For instance, The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ( IT rules) announced in February 2021 put in a framework that brings in transparency in terms of the responsibilities and duties of the internet intermediaries including Twitter and Facebook. VPN companies should cooperate with lawmakers in building up such a framework.

Source: Live-Mint

Mains Question:

Q. Discuss the New Virtual Private Networks Rules in India? Why are Global VPN providers opposing these Rules? Examine.