VPNs Under Attack: Privacy as a Crime

Yes, I use a VPN. It is a standard privacy tool. Well, it used to be a standard privacy tool. These days, wanting privacy makes you look suspicious.

Apparently, if you do not want every website, platform, advertiser, government office, payment processor, random analytics script, and bored algorithm watching your online behavior, there must be something wrong with you.

In the future, closing your curtains may require government approval.

“Why are your curtains closed, citizen? Are you avoiding age verification for your bedroom?”

It sounds stupid. That is usually how the future starts.

Privacy Used to Be Normal

Not long ago, privacy was normal. You did not have to explain why you wanted it. You did not have to defend it. You did not have to pretend you were some dangerous criminal just because you did not want to be tracked everywhere.

A VPN is not magic. It does not turn you into a spy. It does not make you a hacker sitting in a dark basement wearing sunglasses at night. It simply hides your real IP address and routes your traffic through another server.

That can help protect you on public Wi-Fi, reduce tracking, avoid some location-based profiling, and stop every website from immediately knowing where you are. That is not crime. That is basic digital hygiene.

But now privacy tools are slowly being treated like suspicious behavior. The message is becoming clear: if you want privacy, explain yourself.

No. That is backwards.

The state should explain why it wants to know so much. Companies should explain why they need so much data. Platforms should explain why a simple visit to a website has to turn into a tracking circus.

The user should not have to apologize for wanting a private life.

The Age Verification Excuse

Now we have the latest beautiful excuse: age verification. Of course, it is always about children. That is the magic political button. Press “protect children” and suddenly almost anything can be presented as reasonable.

Do you want identity checks? Protect children. Do you want platform monitoring? Protect children. Do you want stronger control over access to websites? Protect children. Do you want to make privacy tools look suspicious? Protect children.

And yes, children should be protected by their parents. Governments should not take over parenting and turn “protecting children” into a polite excuse for monitoring adults.

That is the problem.

Today it is adult content and social media. Then political content. Then “misinformation”. Then “harmful speech”. Then whatever makes regulators uncomfortable next Tuesday.

This is how it usually works. First, the system is introduced for something almost everyone agrees with. Then it expands. Slowly. Politely. With nice wording. With reports, consultations, frameworks, and other bureaucratic pillows.

By the time people notice, the infrastructure already exists.

The VPN “Loophole”

At the time of writing, VPNs are not banned in the European Union. There is no current EU law saying ordinary people cannot use a VPN. There is also no official EU-wide proposal to ban VPNs outright.

But VPNs are absolutely part of the discussion around age verification, because they can allow people to bypass location-based restrictions. A user in one country can appear to be browsing from another country, and that makes enforcement less neat.

And that is where the language starts changing. A privacy tool becomes a loophole. A user protecting his connection becomes a problem. A person wanting less tracking becomes suspicious.

Digital progress with handcuffs.

The official language around age verification sounds nice, of course. It is supposed to be privacy-preserving. It is supposed to let users prove they are old enough without sharing unnecessary personal information.

That sounds good. It always sounds good.

The problem is not only what the system claims to do on day one. The problem is what the system makes possible later. Once age verification becomes normal, the fight moves to enforcement. Once enforcement becomes normal, the fight moves to bypassing. And once bypassing becomes the enemy, privacy tools get dragged into the conversation.

Russia Already Showed the Ugly Version

Some people are surprised by how much online privacy can be reduced. Look at Russia. There, VPN services and circumvention tools have been pushed, blocked, restricted, fined, and treated as a threat to state control. The pattern is obvious: first block websites, then attack the tools people use to reach them.

Of course, the EU is not Russia. But that does not mean every European policy idea is automatically harmless. Western bureaucracy is very good at making control sound polite. Russia may use a hammer. Europe prefers a PDF, a working group, and a press release about safety.

The result can still move in the same direction: less freedom, more monitoring, more verification, and more dependency on approved systems. And whenever someone complains, the answer is predictable.

“If you have nothing to hide, why do you need privacy?”

That sentence should be thrown into the sea.

Everyone has something to hide. Passwords. Bank details. Medical searches. Private messages. Sexual interests. Political opinions. Location. Business ideas. Family problems. Stupid questions typed at 2 AM. Life.

Privacy is not about hiding crime. Privacy is about being a human being, not a permanently inspected data object.

Companies Hate VPNs Too

It is not only governments. Some companies hate VPNs because VPNs reduce the amount of data they can collect. They cannot profile users as easily. They cannot always locate users accurately. They cannot always apply region-based pricing, tracking, restrictions, or advertising systems as smoothly.

So what happens?

Some websites throw captchas at VPN users. Some services block known VPN IP addresses. Some platforms slow things down or make the experience annoying. Some payment systems get nervous. Some streaming platforms complain because licensing deals are apparently more sacred than the Ten Commandments.

And then the user is trained to think: “Oh, VPNs are annoying. I should turn it off.”

The privacy tool becomes unpleasant, not because it is bad, but because the modern internet is increasingly designed to punish anything that interrupts data collection.

The Internet Wants to Know Too Much

Every website wants to know something. Your IP address. Your location. Your browser. Your device. Your screen size. Your language. Your behavior. What you clicked. How long you stayed. Where you came from. Where you went next. Whether you accepted cookies. Whether you rejected cookies. Whether you dared to breathe near a tracking script. It is exhausting.

And when a user says, “No thanks, I would like some privacy,” suddenly the user is the suspicious one.

This is the part that annoys me. The internet became a giant surveillance shopping center, and now users are treated as difficult because they want to walk through it without being scanned like a discounted sausage.

VPNs Are Not the Enemy

VPNs are not perfect. Some are slow. Some are badly run. Some free VPNs are probably worse than no VPN at all, because if the product is free, the product may be your lovely data served warm with sauce.

But the basic idea of a VPN is completely legitimate.

People use VPNs for work. Journalists use them. Developers use them. Travelers use them. People on public Wi-Fi use them. People in countries with censorship use them. People who simply do not want every website knowing their real IP address use them.

That should not be controversial. A privacy tool should not become suspicious just because regulators and companies find it inconvenient.

Privacy Should Not Require an Explanation

This is the real problem. Privacy is slowly changing from a normal expectation into something you must explain.

Why do you use a VPN? Why do you block trackers? Why do you reject cookies? Why do you use encrypted messaging? Why do you hide your IP address? Why do you not want your ID connected to every online activity?

I am not a public document. My private life is not a free buffet. Not everything needs to be tracked, stored, analyzed, monetized, regulated, verified, and filed somewhere in a database.

That should be enough.

The Problem Is Not VPNs. The Problem Is Control.

VPNs are not currently banned in the EU. But the conversation around them is changing, and not in a good way.

When privacy tools are described as loopholes, something is wrong. When age verification becomes a gateway to broader identity checks, something is wrong. When companies and governments both benefit from users being easier to identify, track, and control, something is definitely wrong.

I am not against protecting children. I am against building a future where every adult has to prove, verify, identify, and explain himself just to use the internet.

Privacy is not a crime. Using a VPN is not a confession.

And if the internet now treats privacy like suspicious behavior, then yes, once again: It sucks.