Having a VPN can be beneficial depending on why you want to be invisible online. VPNs can protect you but can also be used to do something illegal on the internet. This is when you may get in trouble with the law.
When used for legal purposes, VPNs are not considered illegal in most countries and anyone can go ahead and start using a VPN service. The act of surfing through another IP is legal, and is something even the biggest companies in the world do all the time. If you however hide behind a VPN service to perform illegal activities, then you’re of course violating the law.
What’s Considered Illegal?
Certain activities are absolutely illegal and shouldn’t be performed with a VPN service. Most quality VPN providers will strictly forbid these in their terms of service:
- Child pornography
- Email and account hacking
- Spreading viruses
- Spamming via email or other ways
- Fraud, theft, scamming
Being unidentifiable online has certain benefits such as being protected from hackers. Recently, many companies and users use this system to access videos and streaming movies online. In a few countries around the world using a VPN in such manner is illegal, limited or restricted.
Typically, countries with controlling laws such as Iran, North Korea and China have outlawed or restricted the use of Virtual Private Networks. Some countries do not want their citizens to access banned websites such as Netflix, Hulu, Facebook and Twitter. Authorities in these countries want to monitor online movements made by citizens who are considered as dissidents.
Identifying a user is important for some transactions done over the internet. For business and making purchases, it is safer to be able to trace a user, buyer or seller back to their origins in case problems are encountered. When used to download videos, piracy, copyright laws, and illegal sharing become issues.
In countries that restrict online movie providers, you can use a VPN to unlock these sites to gain access to their files and videos. Generally, using this system for legal purposes is fine in most countries unless you are found to have used it for illegal reasons. Hiding your IP address to perform illegal activities can get you in trouble.
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Have all your VPN related questions answered by checking our VPN experts' answers to frequently asked questions:
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