Apple, Google Removed Many VPN Apps in India, Government Issued Order to These Companies

Virtual Private Network (VPN) apps have been tightened in the country. Many VPN apps have been removed from American technology company Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Two years ago, the central government had made rules for VPN service providers to collect and store customer data.

After these rules, many VPN providers had closed their physical servers in the country. However, they are providing service to their customers. TechCrunch’s one Report According to. The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued an order to Google and Apple asking them to remove several VPN apps from the Play Store and App Store. The document related to this order has been seen by TechCrunch. The VPN apps removed from Apple and Google’s app stores include the app of American company Cloudflare. Apart from this, apps like X-VPN and PrivadoVPN have also been removed.

However, some VPN apps like Express VPN and Mullvad are available on Apple and Google’s app stores. In the rules issued two years ago by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, it was said that VPN service providers should not have access to the name, address, IP address and contact information of their customers in the country. Other details will have to be collected and stored for a period of five years. After this, many VPN service providers had said that they would not follow these rules and had closed their physical servers in the country. However, despite this they are offering VPN service to customers in the country.

Difficulties have increased for Google in India in the last few years. Recently, the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Sundar Pichai, was served a contempt notice by a Mumbai court for failing to remove a defamatory video on YouTube. This notice was issued on November 21 by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Ballard Pier, Mumbai. It said that YouTube has not complied with the order to remove a defamatory video given in March last year.