The United Arab Emirates has a law which forbids users in the United Arab Emirates to use a VPN client or any form of tool which will hide their identity online. In the last couple of months, the United Arab Emirates police department has released various warnings towards the United Arab Emirates citizens that the use of VPN is illegal and only allowed for specific private users.
The United Arab Emirates police stated that once they have identified a person on the internet, they will look up all the complains which have been filled towards the identified user, and if there are complaints which demand action, the United Arab Emirates police will continue to perform the demanded actions.
The complains do not have to be fresh complaints, the United Arab Emirates police stated that they will search up old complaints so they will be able to make a complete case against the identified user.
The United Arab Emirates VPN law also forces the United Arab Emirates internet users to leave the following services uninstalled:
- Viber
- Voxer
- Line
- Tango
- Skype
- Tinder
The mentioned services above use VOIP services which require specific protocols and connections and it seems that the United Arab Emirates VPN law does not allow random users to use the VOIP services. This is just another case on how the United Arab Emirates forces their citizens to remain public on the internet. The VPN law in the United Arab Emirates sees the use of VPN as tampering with the network, and this is punishable by the United Arab Emirates VPN law.
We strongly urge the United Arab Emirates citizens to remain cautious on the information which is shared via the internet. The government of the United Arab Emirates has tools which allow them to monitor individual internet users within a click of a button.