India has reportedly ordered the removal of some VPN apps from the country's Apple and Google official app stores for allegedly not complying with local rules.
As per the removal notifications reviewed by TechRadar, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued the removal order to both Apple and Google against Hide.me at the end of October 2024. Interestingly, the two notification messages refer to different sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000 – Section 79 and Section 66 respectively.
A recent report on TechCrunch now indicates that more than half-a-dozen VPN apps have been removed from India's official app stores so far, including Hide.me, PrivadoVPN, and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1. TechRadar contacted some of the best VPN apps which have all confirmed their apps are still available at the time of writing.
Why is India removing VPN apps?
Despite not being explicitly mentioned in the removal notifications, these orders appear to be the first enactment of India's highly controversial data retention law enforced in 2022.
Under the new Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) directives, VPN providers are required to retain users' logs for at least five years to hand over this data to authorities upon request.
The new rules provoked an exodus of VPN companies from India, with the likes of ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Hide.me, Surfshark, and Proton VPN removing their servers physically based in the country to avoid compromising their users' privacy.
This is exactly why for Sebastian Schaub, CEO at Hide.me, the removal orders do not come as a total surprise after the recent law amendments added "an impossible burden on VPN providers to operate legally in the country," he said.
What's happening in India isn't an isolated case. Between July and September alone, about 60 VPN apps silently disappeared from the Russian Apple App Store, bringing the total of unavailable applications in the Big Tech giant's official store to 98.
"We find the actions from the Indian government highly concerning. This sort of censorship should not have a place in a democracy," Schaub told TechRadar, adding that India's decision follows similar actions from Russia and China in the past.
As of today, January 3, 2025, some of the biggest names in the VPN market confirmed to TechRadar they have not received any removal notifications. Their VPN apps also remain available in India's official app stores at the time of writing. These are NordVPN, Surfshark, Mullvad VPN, and PureVPN.
Other providers – Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, Windscribe, and Private Internet Access (PIA) – also confirmed none of the above occurred to their services when first approached by TechRadar back in November 2024.
People in India also cannot sign up or download IPVanish VPN apps. This, however, comes from a voluntary decision the provider took as the new rules were enforced to protect their no-log policy commitment.
"In 2022, IPVanish removed our mobile apps from the App Store and Google Play Store in India, stopped customers in India from signing up on our website, and removed physical servers located in India from our network," an IPVanish spokesperson told TechRadar.
We will keep following the situation as it evolves and update the page accordingly, so check back in if you're concerned your favorite VPN may be impacted.
