App Store and Play Store Remove Several VPN Apps in India

The first significant enforcement of India’s 2022 VPN regulations has seen the removal of several VPN apps from app stores, including Cloudflare’s well-known 1.1.1.1 app, in response to government orders. According to a document obtained by TechCrunch, the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered Apple and Google to remove over six dozen VPN apps from their respective stores, including Hide.me and PivadoVPN, in addition to Cloudflare’s popular offering.

TechCrunch also has revealed that some virtual private network (VPN) applications have been taken down from the Indian versions of the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. More than two years after the government implemented regulations requiring VPN service providers to gather and retain consumer information, these apps were removed in what seems to be the first crackdown against them. In reaction to the regulations that were published in April 2022, a number of VPN companies previously closed their physical servers in the nation, while they continue to provide services to clients in India.

India made the move to block VPN Apps After Removal Requests. A document obtained by TechCrunch claims that the Ministry of Home Affairs ordered Apple and Google to take several VPN apps down from the App Store and Play Store, respectively. The government’s October 29 request to Google was just discovered by the publishing on the Lumen database.

The removals are a result of the government’s 2022 cybersecurity framework, which mandates that VPN companies keep thorough customer information for five years, including names, addresses, and IP addresses. In its correspondence with impacted developers, Apple referenced a “demand” from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center, according to TechCrunch.

This crackdown comes after significant VPN providers previously opposed it. Companies like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, and SurfShark voiced significant resistance to the laws when they were revealed in 2022, and several of them moved their server infrastructure out of India. These vendors have stopped promoting their apps in India, even though they still serve Indian users.

The VPN app from Cloudflare, a US-based content delivery network service provider, version 1.1.1.1, is one of the most prominent VPN apps to be removed from both app stores. Hide.me, PrivadoVPN, X-VPN, and Touch VPN are among the other apps that were removed.

At the time this news was published, Google and Apple had already blocked access to these apps. On both platforms, other VPN applications like Mullvad, Proton VPN, Express VPN, and Private Internet Access are still accessible.

These apps were taken down more than two years after the government mandated that VPN companies operating in the nation gather and retain client information for a term of five years. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology stated in April 2022 that ISPs will have to keep track of users’ names, IP addresses, addressees, and other contact information in India.

Notable VPN companies, including ExpressVPN, Surfshark, NordVPN, and Private Internet Access, declared they would not abide by the regulations and shut down their physical VPN servers in India two months after CERT-In issued the order. It is important to note that while not operating in the nation, these service providers nevertheless provide VPN services to clients.

Although business and enterprise VPNs are exempt, the rules, which entered into force in the middle of 2022, apply to cloud services, VPN operators, and virtual private server providers. IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that providers that refused to follow the new regulations would have to leave the market when they went into effect.

Requests for comment on the recent removals have not received a response from Apple, Google, or the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Since Google and Apple have not yet released any remarks regarding the withdrawal of these VPN apps, many people are wondering what this implies for customers who depend on these services to provide security and privacy.