People Caught Using VPNs, Tor, or Proxies in the UAE Risk a $545,000 Fine

[Exterminator]

UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan signed a new law last week that makes it illegal to mask your IP address when going online, Emirates24/7 reports.

Federal Law No. 12/2016, amending Federal Law No. 5/2012, is a new UAE law for combating IT crimes in the United Arab Emirates., which features the following controversial paragraph:

“ Whoever uses a fraudulent computer network protocol address (IP address) by using a false address or a third-party address by any other means for the purpose of committing a crime or preventing its discovery, shall be punished by temporary imprisonment and a fine of no less than Dh500,000 and not exceeding Dh2,000,000, or either of these two penalties. ”

The above paragraph dictates that people caught using IP-masking technologies like VPNs, proxies, Tor, I2P, or others, risk going to jail, and/or an additional fine between $135,000 and $545,000.

Reasons for approving the law are murky
The purpose of this law is to deter UAE citizens from accessing the Internet by masking their real IP address, which is like a street address for the Internet, revealing someone's rough position on the globe.

The reasons to deter UAE citizens from masking their IP address are many. First off to fight cyber-crime, but some argue that this rule was put in place to scare users from using VPNs or proxies and accessing services blocked in the country, such as Internet telephony (VoIP) services.

The country's largest Internet providers block access to VoIP Web and mobile services such as Facebook Messenger, Snapchat, Skype and others.

The UAE government has been relatively quiet on this front, allowing the ISPs to do as they wished.

Other countries like Morocco also allow telcos to ban Internet calling services to protect their businesses. At one point, even Russia was pondering similar laws to protect Russian telecom giants from Skype and ICQ, the most successful VoIP services at that time.

Doesn't seem so bad that we here at MT only prevent you from entering a giveaway with a Proxy/VPN

 

[ElectricSheep]

Would love that if that applied to trolls, cloners, sock puppeteers

 

[DJ Panda]

Well piraters are going to have a bigger hassle. Not only will they get charged for using VPN they are pirating. At least that is what I seem to understand from the article.

 

[Azure]

Well piraters are going to have a bigger hassle. Not only will they get charged for using VPN they are pirating. At least that is what I seem to understand from the article.

Doesn't matter whether you are pirating or not, if you are caught using any IP-masking software you will be fined.

It's important to note, that some people use VPNs and proxies as a way to disclose information without the dangers of pursuit.

They should just remove this phrase "or preventing its discovery", and it might be fine.

 

[viktik]

sound like UAE is under a dictator president.

 

[hjlbx]

The law states the fine is applicable when a person uses a VPN to commit a crime or to hide a crime; the law doesn't place a permanent ban on any and all VPN use.

Another fine example of security news clickbait fear mongering and scare tactics...

It ain't @exterminator20's fault - whomever wrote that article manipulated the truth and states things that are false.

 

[ElectricSheep]

People also use VPN's to circumvent IP bans on forums and chatrooms where they troll by using multiple sockpuppet accounts or by cloning other users. These people have no life and troll for the sake of it.

 

[Azure]

The law states the fine is applicable when a person uses a VPN to commit a crime or to hide a crime; the law doesn't place a permanent ban on any and all VPN use.

Thanks for the confirmation. The way it was written made it sound like simply using a VPN was punishable.

 

[Deleted member 178]

a common trend make some rich people in this country to hire female workers from poorest countries like Asia, take their passport at arrival then exploit and abuse them (sometime sexually). No wonder this kind of law is applied...

 

[Myriad]

It is the trend that is disturbing , whatever the exact details.

Over in the UK , the government of David Cameron wanted a complete ban on the use of encryption ,
regardless of why it was being used.
The idea was eventually dropped ( for now ) not least because of the sheer impossibility of putting it into practice.

And in the USA , the government has put pressure on developers of security-related software to build-in " backdoors " .

It seems to be the way the wind is blowing these days ....

 

[Zerion]

So it's illegal to use a VPN? What the h*ll is wrong with this world?

What am i supposed to do? I don't want to show the world exactly what im doing?

VPN Must be the best thing that happend to the internet.

 

[Wave]

Would be a shame for the person but still funny if someone was innocently torrenting some legit non illegal download as the law was applied and got busted then and there and charged since its still a torrent!..

 

[omidomi]

I have noting to said, my country has same laws about it

 

[Windows_Security]

So they are not fining the use of VPN, only increasing fine and punishment when a crime was committed and VPN or privacy services were used to hide these crimes/identity. In london there is a closed camera circuit for security (I was told 1 camera on every 13 inhabitants). Every attack on freedom of thought, human rights, etc triggers a counter balance for more control (and hence less privacy). I think it is kind of ironic that some worry about privacy while herds of people sell their habits and behaviour to the marketeers of the internet of things.

 

[Logethica]

So they are not fining the use of VPN, only increasing fine and punishment when a crime was committed and VPN or privacy services were used to hide these crimes/identity. In london there is a closed camera circuit for security (I was told 1 camera on every 13 inhabitants). Every attack on freedom of thought, human rights, etc triggers a counter balance for more control (and hence less privacy). I think it is kind of ironic that some worry about privacy while herds of people sell their habits and behaviour to the marketeers of the internet of things.

I agree....And I also find Irony in the number of times over the last 20 years that an Official Statement has said that "The CCTV wasn't functioning correctly that day"..It seems to always happen when the Casualty list is either "One specific high-profile target" or "A very high number of casualties,in order to sway public opinion/foreign policy"...
If the cameras are there for OUR protection,then who will protect us from those that ordered the installation of the cameras?

 

[JHomes]

I get using a VPN, people always associate it with anonymity as if someone's hiding themselves from their dumb internet activities, but some people just don't want their IP address floating around. I get that, so I think it's kind of weird for them to come down hard on these guys. It's like me saying my car doesn't handle itself well on the road so I demand they re-pave the road.

 

[jamescv7]

Here's the point, using VPN or any related things to mask the IP address will definitely serve already questionable unless proven guilty on cybercrime; because you hide from authorities, you want to escape from certain areas so you are already consider to be an outlaw.

Follow the rules, do not break it.

 

[simbelmayne]

There are many laws, but some of them aren't really serious. It's about the word of law and the spirit of law. The UAE government just needed a lawful reason to arrest people which are suspected in other crimes.