"Leave VPNs alone." That's the plea from anti-online censorship and surveillance group Fight for the Future, which designated Thursday as a VPN Day of Action, a day for people to press lawmakers not to ban virtual private networks.
The group of activists, artists, engineers and technologists is calling on people to sign an open letter and encourage politicians to preserve the existence of VPNs. VPNs encrypt internet connections and aim to protect privacy and prevent surveillance. They can also hide your physical location.
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Fight for the Future campaigns and communication director Lia Holland said VPNs are vital for "people living under authoritarian regimes" to avoid censorship and surveillance.
"Reputable VPNs have become an essential tool that support everyday people in exercising their basic human rights," Holland said. "But amid a moral panic, ignorant 'save-the-children' politicians are getting very close to kicking the hornet's nest of millions of people who know how important VPNs are."
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Joining the call for action on Thursday are the VPN Trust Initiative -- comprised of NordVPN, Surfshark and ExpressVPN -- and the VPN Guild, which includes Amnezia VPN.
Half of all US states have passed age-verification laws requiring internet users to prove their age with government-issued IDs, credit card checks, and other methods. That has spurred consumers to sign up for VPNs to avoid giving out sensitive information, with one recent VPN sign-up spike in the UK.
Michigan is considering a bill banning adult content online and VPNs. If the bill becomes law, Michigan would be the first US state to ban VPNs. Many countries, including China, India and Iran, already ban or heavily restrict VPNs.
Could a VPN ban happen?
Banning VPNs would be "difficult," says attorney Mario Trujillo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international digital rights group.
"VPNs are best suited for routing your network connection through a different network," Trujillo told CNET. "They can be used to help avoid censorship, but they are also used by employees in every sector to connect to their company's network. That is a practical reality that would make any ban difficult."
Trujillo added that the US should focus more on privacy than VPN bans.
"The United States lags behind the rest of the world in privacy regulation; lawmakers should focus on correcting that," he said.
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Fight for the Future identifies who your local lawmakers are and suggests what to say when you contact their office. That help is listed on the same web page as the Defend VPNs open letter.