Claiming that criminals use encryption to stay anonymous, last year a parliamentary committee urged the Indian government to ban VPNs. While that didn’t happen, new security-focused directions published by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology look set to make effective online anonymity a thing of the past.

People being free to share and access ideas, knowledge and opinions with their peers is a universally accepted standard for the entire human race. The big problem is that the definition of ‘free’ differs widely and is often defined by the few, not the many.

In online terms, true freedom is already under threat. As governments take more control over ‘their’ parts of the internet, citizens are informed that this is for the greater good, to keep their families safe and economies strong. Giving up small freedoms here….and a few others over there….are presented as insignificant sacrifices hardly worth our attention.

However, once these systems are in place, governments can use them to ‘protect’ citizens from dissenting opinions, unpalatable news, whistleblowing, and our ability to absorb all information, thereby reaching educated conclusions of our own. Early adopters of VPNs recognized this years ago, and as more people retain choice by using them, some governments are calling for VPNs to be restricted or even banned.

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