VPN Tracker
Country-level index of jurisdictions that completely ban virtual private networks or heavily restrict them (licensed-only tunnels, criminalisation of unauthorised use, aggressive provider blocking) — plus current legislative efforts to expand VPN bans.
VPN bans & heavy restrictions
| Country | Severity | Since | Status | Source |
|---|
Service availability by country
The 15 most widely used consumer VPN providers, checked against every jurisdiction in the table above: can you actually use the service there. This tracks the connection rather than the app listing — Pakistan, for one, leaves the apps in both stores and blocks the tunnels instead. It also separates the two ways a service can be unusable: blocked means the state blocks it, unavailable means the provider itself withdrew from the market. Where a country restricts circumvention tools wholesale rather than by name, the country baseline applies; providers named in reporting override it.
Blocked does not mean unreachable. These ratings describe a service’s official standing and what happens on a default connection — not the ceiling on what is technically possible. Unavailable is a different problem with a different fix: the provider has withdrawn from that market, so the obstacle is buying and installing the service rather than connecting through a filter. Obfuscation features that disguise VPN traffic as ordinary HTTPS, bridge servers, and self-hosted tunnels still get people online across every jurisdiction listed here, which is precisely why these regimes keep expanding their filtering. The more useful warning is legal rather than technical: in Myanmar, Islamic Republic of Iran, Turkmenistan and Belarus the act of circumventing the block is itself an offence, and enforcement has extended to on-the-spot phone searches. Where that is the case, the risk of getting around a block is not a failed connection.
Country notes & sources
Apple iCloud Private Relay Restrictions
iCloud Private Relay Regional Availability
iCloud Private Relay is Apple’s dual-hop privacy feature designed to encrypt Safari browsing traffic and obscure user IP addresses. Apple disables or omits Private Relay in jurisdictions with strict internet surveillance laws or regulatory requirements, as well as regions where paid iCloud+ services are not supported.
Current Legislative Efforts
New or pending national and regional efforts to ban, criminalise, or further restrict VPNs — distinct from long-settled complete bans in the table above where possible.
Rejected Efforts
Proposals to ban or heavily restrict VPNs that advanced in a legislature or public debate but were defeated, withdrawn, or otherwise failed to become law.