PureVPN Removes Servers From India in Line With No-Log Policy

British Virgin Islands-based PureVPN has decided to remove physical servers in India after the country's government passed directives for Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers to collect and store customer data. Users who wish to avail the service's Indian servers will still be able to do so through virtual servers.

The directions came from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a functional organization under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on April 28, 2022, and will be effective from June 27, 2022 (60 days from the date of issue).

PureVPN will not be complying with the Government of India's directives. 

"We are a strict no-log company. While we do not collect any identifiable information from our users, we cannot operate physical servers in a country where we will be forced to change our operating methods and compromise our users' privacy and security," said Head of MarCom, PureVPN, Shaheryar Popalzai. 

CERT-In's directives ask VPN providers (plus cloud service providers and data centers) to store information such as names, email IDs, IP addresses etc of customers. All companies are required to maintain this data for 5 years. 

PureVPN users who still wish to access India servers or an Indian IP will be able to do so. The VPN provider will be moving its India servers from physical to virtual servers to continue serving its users across the globe.

"We are not new to virtual servers, so users will not see any difference in terms of quality or experience when they connect to the India virtual server. Users will get the same privacy and security they did with physical servers. We are already running virtual servers for multiple locations such as Bangladesh, Bahrain, Egypt etc."

Users of PureVPN, which has over 6,500 servers worldwide, will now connect to the India virtual server through Singapore. 

PureVPN CEO Uzair Gadit, who had earlier expressed concern over the Government of India's move, said, "Privacy and security are the absolute rights of all internet users. We stand in solidarity with all internet users who are at risk."

"A large number of internet users now use VPNs for security and other purposes. And data shows 45% of Indian internet users were using VPNs in 2020. We care about users inside the country and those looking to access India servers for their needs. All the decisions we make are in the best interest of our users, as was this one," said Gadit.

The VPN company will continue to monitor the situation in India. 

PureVPN is committed to providing digital safety, while making sure its users have the safest and most seamless experience online. The VPN service continues serving its 3 million+ satisfied customers with 6500+ servers in 78+ countries.