The Chinese government forced Apple to remove VPN apps from the App Store there way back in 2017, and the company is now having to do the same in India.
So far, a small number of VPN apps have been removed to comply with an anti-privacy law barring anonymous use, but many more are likely to follow …
Hundreds of VPN apps removed in China
The Chinese government has long banned the use of VPN apps, which many of its citizens used to avoid government surveillance of their online activities.
Back in 2017, Apple was forced to remove hundreds of VPN apps from the Chinese App Store, with CEO Tim Cook saying at the time that the company had to reluctantly comply with the law.
We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but like we do in other countries, we follow the law wherever we do business. We strongly believe in participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers. We’re hopeful that over time the restrictions we are seeing are loosened.
First VPN apps removed in India
India introduced a new law back in 2022, which effectively banned the anonymous use of VPNs, as well as outlawing services like NordVPN that keep no logs of customer activity.
Implementation was delayed after numerous objections, and was then introduced but not enforced. However, enforcement has now begun, TechCrunch reporting that Apple has begun removing VPN apps from the Indian App Store.
The rules mandate that VPN providers and cloud service operators maintain comprehensive records of their customers, including names, addresses, IP addresses and transaction histories, for a five-year period.
More than half-a-dozen VPN apps, including Cloudflare’s widely-used 1.1.1.1, have been pulled from India’s Apple App Store and Google Play Store following intervention from government authorities, TechCrunch has learned.
The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs issued removal orders for the apps, according to a document reviewed by TechCrunch and a disclosure made by Google to Lumen, Harvard University’s database that tracks government takedown requests globally.
It seems the government is identifying non-compliant apps individually, so the process is likely to be a long drawn-out one, but the end result is likely to be similar to China, with hundreds of apps removed. No respectable VPN app is going to comply with this law.
9to5Mac’s Take
This is obviously at odds with Apple’s privacy values, but the company is in a no-win situation. It has to comply with local laws in each of the countries in which it operates, even in the case of regressive legislation by repressive governments.
While it could in theory take the moral high ground and pull out of these markets, China is its primary manufacturing hub, and India has evolved to become its second-largest production center, meaning that simply isn’t a practical option.
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