Conflict with Brazilian laws led the VPN service to deactivate its servers in the country
In an official note on its website, the VPN Private Internet Access service, which values, among other things, but especially, the security of its users’ data, deactivated its servers in Brazil due to the obligation of internet services to keep records of all their users’ browsing data for a whole year, which goes against the company’s main policy, privacy.
Private Internet Access was informed by its lawyers that, according to Law nº 12.965, it is decreed that every company responsible for providing an IP address must store all navigation records and data of its customers for at least one year. The local data center previously used by the company, Equinix, reported that the Brazilian government “changed its tone” in relation to this data control, and intends to guarantee that all internet service providers, including virtual ones, strictly follow these determinations. Brazilian internet servers are already considered extremely flawed in terms of data security. consumer data. One of them even leaked the confidential information of millions of users. Brazilian Private Internet Access customers will continue to have access to PIA’s vast network of servers and, according to the company’s own note, ” have every reason in the world to want to do so”. Privacy in Brazil is in short supply.
Also according to the official note, the PIA explains that it is immediately removing all its Brazilian exit gateways without any plans to establish new ones, due to the current interpretation of Brazilian internet laws. The company is absolutely committed to protecting the privacy of its users and its legal team is constantly evaluating the data regulatory laws of the countries in which its servers operate. When a country seeks to force the storage, legally or illegally, of these records, PIA immediately terminates its services in the region. Private Internet Access has already closed its servers in South Korea and Russia earlier for similar reasons. Since, due to the purpose of the service offered, PIA does not store any navigation data, session data, or period, it is impossible for the Brazilian government to try to gather prior information from the old data centers. 11/20/2018 at 4:13 p.m.