Are VPNs legal? Countries where VPNs are illegal

There are many VPN services available nowadays, so it stands to reason that using one has advantages. The questions are, “What are these advantages?” and “Are VPNs legal?”.  Learn if VPN usage is legal in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, China, Russia, UAE, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Oman, India, North-Korea. Also, are VPNs legal for torrenting, for unblocking Netflix, and for Kodi?

Before we look at the advantages and legality of VPNs, it will help us to understand how they work and what they do. A virtual private network (VPN) connection does two things:

1. It manipulates your device’s IP address, making you appear that it originates from a different place (machine, location, or country).
2. It encrypts and cloaks your signal, making it impossible for any eavesdroppers to monitor your online activity.

Firstly, is hiding your IP address legal?

Well, that is a tricky question. The answer should be “Yes,” but it is more accurate “It depends.”

In most countries, going through a proxy to hide your IP or using a VPN is perfectly legal. You can’t get in any trouble for this unless you are suspected of doing illegal activities while under hidden IP’s.

Advantages of using a VPN

Although a VPN (Virtual Private Network) slows down connection speed by between 25 and 50% percent, there are some excellent reasons why you might want to change/hide your IP address or cloak your activities.

1. Download and upload P2P files in privacy – P2P is frowned upon by the MPAA and other cinema and music associations. This is detected by eavesdropping on ISP signals, something which a VPN will prevent.
2. Access streaming content from outside your country – Content streaming services such as Netflix are not allowed to stream content outside the US due to copyright agreements. This is enforced by reading an IP and tracing it to its country of origin. With a VPN, the Netflix block can be bypassed.
3. Break out of restrictive networks – There are specific private or public networks (or Internet providers) that restrict access to a particular type of content from the Internet. A VPN connection will allow you to break off a restrictive network at school or work and connect to websites and webmail services that might otherwise be restricted.
4. Using public Wi-Fi with confidence – Public and hotel WiFi is notoriously insecure. A VPN provides a layer of security to the WiFi connection that will protect the user.
5. Cloak VOIP Phone Calls – VOIP services like Skype are easy to eavesdrop on. A VPN will prevent this from happening.
6. Bypass a country’s web censorship – Some states choose to impose oppressive internet censoring on their entire countries. A VPN server will enable you to tunnel out of the censorship restrictions and provides unrestricted Internet access.
7. Watch home-specific broadcasts while traveling – A VPN tunnel connection can be used to force the foreign connection to access your home country as if you were physically there, enabling you to watch local football feeds, TV and newscasts. Don’t forget to read: 7 tips to keep your laptop secure while traveling.
8. Use search engines without having searches logged – Search engines catalog every web search you perform to customize the advertising and future searches for your computer. With a VPN, this is not possible, and it protects your privacy. Also, you may want to use a private search engine.
9. Privacy is a fundamental right – If you are a firm believer in personal privacy and the right to receive and broadcast without being surveilled and cataloged by authorities, a VPN or Tor is the way to go.
10. Avoid reprisals and tracebacks when doing research – If you do sensitive research for your company or don’t want your research details known for any other reason, using a VPN will prevent this.

Are VPNs legal or illegal? VPN is legal in most countries!

In general, VPNs are legal in most countries, but how it is being used will ultimately determine its legality in those countries. There are however many countries where the use of VPNs is illegal, irrespective of what it is being used for. In these countries surfing the Internet may be dangerous, as users’ identities may be exposed to the activity monitored by governmental firewalls.

The legality of VPNs is various countries

Are VPNs legal in the United States?

VPNs are entirely legal in the US and are used by numerous organizations.

You need to, however, be careful what you do with your VPN, as some usages are against the law. If you use a VPN to prevent people from determining your IP address or location, this is legal in the US.

If you, however, use a VPN to download movies illegally, you are committing copyright violation which is a crime in the US.

Is VPN legal and safe in the United Kingdom?

Although VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are legal in the UK, this should not be confused with the legitimate use of VPNs. VPNs could be used for illegal activities, and these typically involve copyright infringements. If you use a VPN to download copyrighted material illegally in the UK, you could face severe penalties.

Are VPN services legal in the European Union?

VPNs are legal in the EU. However, there are some, for instance, Denmark that have introduced laws that enable them to censor internet content. In this case, VPNs could be used to bypass the censorship and users may get into legal trouble.

Is VPN usage legal in China?

VPNs are not legal in China. China continuously tries to close down VPN services by blocking individual providers, but this is not effective as new services keep replacing those the government blocks. With new legislation released by China, VPN service providers need to get approval from the government. This, however, means they have to agree to terms that defeat the purposes of VPNs. Some regions ban VPNs completely.

Are VPNs legal in Russia?

VPNs are illegal in Russia and Putin has signed a new law that increases internet censorship substantially. This is seen as being the beginning of the Russian VPN ban. There is however much confusion about what exactly is banned and how it will be implemented due to media reports not always being accurate.

Are VPN services legal in the UAE?

The United Arab Emirates has recently banned the use of VPNs. Penalties for using a VPN are stiff and range from imprisonment to massive fines of up to £400,000. The law states that:

Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery, shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than Dh500,000 [£100,000] and not exceeding Dh2,000,000 [£400,000], or either of these two penalties.

The bill also refers to accessing blocked services or websites, which can only be done with a VPN or proxy. Such blocked services are Snapchat, Viber, and WhatsApp, other VOIP services except for Skype.

However, many Internet users from the UAE (United Arab Emirates) are using VPN apps and services.

Is VPN usage legal in Turkey?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of the country, has expressed his dislike for social media publicly, and his administration introduced the blocking of various sites. Also, Tor and popular VPN services were blocked by ISPs (Internet Service Providers). The VPN usage is discouraged in Turkey, but not illegal. For Turkish VPN users, it is essential to go for VPN services that provide IP leak and DNS leak protection, in order not to get exposed.

Are VPNs legal in Iraq?

Although VPNs are officially illegal in Iraq, government-owned institutions and government officials casually break their laws and use VPNs daily. Iraq has banned the use of VPNs and blocks chat apps and social media under the pretext of stopping ISIS.

Is VPN legal in Iran?

In Iran, VPNs are illegal unless they have been registered with the Iranian government and they approve them. There is however not much point in using a VPN under these conditions. However, there are remedies to the Iranian block.

Are VPN services legal in Oman?

VPNs are illegal in Oman and are actively blocked as part of widespread media censorship that includes the internet.

Are VPNs legal in India?

VPNs are legal in India despite a recent government warning that internet users could face jail time plus a fine for visiting forbidden websites. A judge however later pointed out that this Internet activity is not illegal.

Are VPNs legal in North Korea?

Although there are no credible sources that can indicate whether VPNs are legal in North Korea or not, the country has blocked content from major social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

The legality of VPNs for various usages

Are VPNs legal for torrenting?

Torrents are legal to download whether you use a VPN or not. When copyrighted material is however shared and downloaded, this is illegal. Make sure that you read our 12 tips on how to torrent safely, and that you use one of the VPNs for torrents. Also, you should ask yourself: is a free VPN safe?  In my opinion, you should not trust free VPN services for your torrent downloads.

Is VPN usage legal for unlocking Netflix?

Is VPN legal and safe with Netflix? Using a VPN for Netflix is against their Terms of Use. When questioning their service department, their official stance is that they don’t encourage the use of VPNs due to potential quality issues, but they don’t frown upon its use either.

Are VPN services legal for Kodi?

Using a VPN for Kodi is legal as long as the use of VPNs is legitimate in your country. There are however Kodi add-ons that may not be legal, and using these can be a crime.

Conclusion

Although VPNs are legal in most parts of the world, care should be taken not to use them for illegal purposes. There are, however, some countries where using a VPN is illegal and breaking these laws could result in stiff penalties.