Using VPN in UAE Could Cost You $545,000 (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The President of the United Arab Emirates has issued a series of new federal laws relating to IT crimes, including a regulation that forbids anyone in the UAE from making use of virtual private networks to secure their web traffic from prying eyes. The new law states that anyone who uses a VPN or proxy server can be imprisoned and fined between $136,000-$545,000 if they are found to use VPNs fraudulently. Previously, the law was restricted to prosecuting people who used VPNs as part of an internet crime, but UK-based VPN and privacy advocate Private Internet Access says that the law has now changed to enable police in the UAE to go after anyone who uses VPNs to access blocked services, which is considered to be fraudulent use of an IP address.

Comments

that's

[Anonymous Coward]

freaking scary. Of course, the good ol' U.S.A. will never get that scary. Not ever. Not even in the next 5 years or so. Never.

Coming to your country too

[110010001000]

If you don't think this will come to YOUR country, you are mistaken. Eventually everyone will need to connect to the Internet using only approved devices and software. You don't think this is possible? It is technically possible to do. It will be done in the name of piracy/terrorism/children/et al.