Surfshark shuts down India servers
After ExpressVPN, Surfshark became the second major virtual private network (VPN) provider to shut down its servers in India in response to the country’s new cybersecurity directive which requires VPNs to store user data for a period of five years. The company said that VPN providers leaving India “isn’t good for its burgeoning IT sector”.
“In response to the new Indian data regulation laws, Surfshark is shutting down its servers in India. The new laws require VPN providers to record and keep customers’ logs for 180 days as well as collect and keep excessive customer data for five years,” the company said in a blog post on Tuesday. “Surfshark proudly operates under a strict ‘no logs’ policy, so such new requirements go against the core ethos of the company”.
Prior to Surfshark, ExpressVPN removed its servers from India following the cybersecurity directive released the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In). This may not be the last one, as at least one more VPN provider in NordVPN too is contemplating removing its India servers.
Surfshark said its physical servers in India will be shut down before the new law comes into power on June 27. After the rules kick in, the company will introduce “virtual” Indian servers, which will be physically located in Singapore and London. “Users in India who don’t use Indian servers will not notice any differences – they will still be able to connect to whichever server outside the country they please,” it said.Best of Express PremiumPremiumPremiumPremiumPremium
“VPN suppliers leaving India isn’t good for its burgeoning IT sector. Surfshark’s data shows that since 2004, the year data breaches became widespread, 14.9B accounts have been leaked and a striking 254.9M of them belong to users from India,” the company said.
Surfshark is based out of the Netherlands and, as of April 2022, had over 3,200 servers in more than 65 countries
