In a report released this month, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)—the global watchdog on money laundering and terrorist financing—raised concerns about how virtual private networks (VPNs) are being misused to facilitate terror financing and evade surveillance.
A VPN is a way to access the internet without revealing your IP address or leaving behind a browsing history, while encrypting your data, and sidestepping website blocks and firewalls. VPNs are widely used—for business and personal reasons, with intentions noble and ill.
On the one hand, VPNs serve as vital tools for individuals in countries with strict internet censorship, enabling access to restricted content. On the other hand, they can be exploited for nefarious purposes. The FATF cited the 2022 attack on security personnel at the Gorakhnath Temple in Uttar Pradesh as a case in point: the lone assailant reportedly used a VPN to transfer funds between Indian and foreign bank accounts and to conceal his digital communications. His purchase of the VPN service later became a crucial investigative lead.
Approximately 31% (or 1.75 billion) of the world’s internet users utilise VPNs, with India, China, and Indonesia leading the way. A bulk of them use free VPNs, which may not offer true anonymity. There is an active market for paid VPN services. In 2022, it generated revenues of approximately $31.6 billion and is projected to grow to around $125 billion by 2032—a compound annual growth rate of 14.7%.
A survey of US adults shows that nearly half used a VPN in 2023. Furthermore, between 2021 and 2023, a larger proportion of users utilised VPNs on their personal devices.
Protecting privacy
Much of VPN usage on personal devices is driven by a desire for privacy. But VPNs are also used creatively—for instance, a Netflix subscriber in India can connect to a US server via a VPN to access the American Netflix library. While entertainment is one motivation, privacy remains the stronger driver. A 2020 survey by Top10VPN, a research firm focused on VPN services, found that users are more concerned about safeguarding their digital footprints than entertainment.
For example, half of the top 10 ranked VPN apps in the Taiwan App Store had links to mainland China. Simon Migliano, head of research at Top10VPN.com, says: “While internet shutdowns and censorship have been the catalyst for recent surges in VPN use in authoritarian countries, more democratic nations have seen a sharp increase in VPN adoption for a multitude of different reasons…approach to privacy stem from a more general worry, rather than from an understanding of data collection practices across online industries.”
Covid spike
In terms of protecting their privacy, internet users have four options: delete cookies, use a private browsing window, VPN, and ad-blockers. In the same Top10VPN survey in 42 countries, only 16% of survey respondents had used all four options. Further, about one-fourth said they used no privacy tools. The survey said: “While a need for privacy dictates VPN adoption, the tools themselves escape the same scrutiny. Users look at speed and quality of connection when shopping for VPNs before they look at privacy policies.”
Google Trends data from India backs this up. Interest in VPNs surged during the two pandemic-induced lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, when remote work became the norm. The peak came in May 2021, during the country’s second major lockdown—marking the highest search interest for VPNs in the past decade.
Internet shutdowns
Between January 2020 and May 2025, India witnessed nine sharp spikes in Google search interest for VPN services. Five of these coincided with the covid-19 lockdowns.
The remaining four surges occurred in the context of socio-political unrest—three of them directly linked to internet shutdowns. In March 2020, search interest jumped in Jammu & Kashmir when some restrictions on internet access were temporarily eased following a prolonged curfew that began after a change in the region’s political status in August 2019. On 4 March 2020, some curbs were temporarily lifted, and interest in VPNs shot up.
Two other significant upticks occurred in Manipur and Meghalaya during periods when mobile internet services were suspended, triggering a rush toward VPNs to bypass the shutdowns.
The most recent spike came in May 2025, following a terror attack in Pahalgam. In response, India imposed a blanket ban on all Pakistan-origin content on streaming platforms. The move drove many users to VPNs as a workaround.
In a world turning right in political ideology, seeing an increase in armed conflict, and grappling with technology on an unprecedented scale, expect VPNs to thrive.
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