As of today, September 26, if you are in Arizona, you need to be ready to scan your government ID to access websites displaying at least 33% of adult-only content. Arizona's verification law comes despite experts' warnings against the privacy and security implications that could arise.
That's exactly why VPN providers should expect to experience a surge in usage as worried citizens look for a way to protect their precious data. But are those companies ready for the task?
One of the best VPN providers right now, Proton VPN, confirmed to TechRadar that the team has been working to boost the product capacity precisely to respond to similar spikes in demand.
"Proton's infrastructure is already robust enough to handle any increased traffic that would likely result from Arizona and any other state that passed similar laws," said Proton VPN's General Manager, David Peterson.
For example, "Our infrastructure has recently absorbed regional traffic surges of more than 8,000% above baseline," Peterson pointed out, referring to increased usage that occurred during the Nepal protests.
3,500+ servers across 17 US states
Every time you turn on your virtual private network (VPN) software, you need to connect to one of its VPN servers based in the location of your choice. It's the VPN server that will define your spoofed IP address.
While Proton VPN boasts over 14,700 servers across 126 countries at the time of writing, more than 3,500 servers are based in the United States and spread across 17 US states.
This means that people in Arizona have plenty of choices to keep browsing locally, while avoiding sharing their sensitive data.
"Proton has been steadily expanding its server network for years," Peterson told TechRadar. "We are confident that our systems are more than adequately robust to handle any resulting increase in traffic from Arizona."
It's worth noting, though, that while Proton also offers one of the best free VPN apps you can get, you need to upgrade to enjoy the protection of its full server network. Proton VPN free gives you access only to five locations, yet one of those is actually located in the US.
How to cope with potential connectivity issues
We came across some reports on Reddit recently, however, where Proton VPN users lamented some connectivity issues.
We thought this may have been a consequence of Proton VPN recording an hourly increase in sign-ups of over 1,400% starting from July 25, the day mandatory age verification requirements landed in the UK.
Is anyone else having issues recently? from r/ProtonVPN
Peterson categorically dismissed that Proton has any capacity issues, especially in the US or UK, and said the team is now investigating the cause behind these reports. He also shares some tips to get the best experience.
As a rule of thumb, Peterson explains, allowing Proton VPN to connect automatically will provide the fastest experience. That's because the app will select the server with the greatest available capacity, ensuring better connectivity and speed.
"Bottlenecks may arise if too many users manually select the same server – often the first one listed for a given country," said Peterson.
"It is also possible, as many have speculated, that certain ISPs throttle VPN traffic," Peterson added.
Mandatory age verification has indeed fueled a debate across the UK and the US on whether or not online services should block VPNs, as these apps de facto make these laws ineffective.
Michigan has taken the most radical stance so far, proposing a complete ban on both the use and promotion of any circumventing tools as part of its law on adult content.
While it's impossible to know for certain if Arizona (or any other US state) plans to engage in VPN throttling, Peterson suggests testing this theory by connecting to Proton’s 'Stealth' feature, which conceals VPN use from the ISP.
It's worth noting that, while working better against VPN blocking, the Stealth protocol may introduce a slight overhead and marginally reduce speed.
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