To comply with new regulations in India, Apple and Google have removed six VPN apps from their app stores in the country, News reports.
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs ordered the removal, which is linked to a cybersecurity framework the country introduced in 2022. It mandated that VPN apps maintain customers’ names, email addresses, IP addresses, and transaction histories for five years.
Its implementation was delayed after numerous VPN providers objected, but it’s now finally being enforced. Apps that don’t comply are being pulled, including Hide.me, PrivadoVPN, and Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1.
In a statement to one of the affected parties, viewed by News, Apple mentioned receiving a removal request from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center.
Ahead of the law’s initial launch date, popular VPN providers like ExpressVPN, SurfShark, and NordVPN shut down their servers in India. According to News, the three services are still available in India, though they don’t market their services in the region.
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Apple previously removed 400 VPN apps in China in 2017; nearly 100 were removed from Russia’s App Store in 2024 alone.
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