VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network, a feature that allows one or more devices to communicate privately and encrypted within a public communications infrastructure, such as the Internet. In other words, the technology allows you to access online content in a more private way, making interception difficult.
The acronym has been cited in news headlines since the decision by Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court, that suspended access to social network X in Brazilian territory after the owner of the platform, who lives in the United States, refused to comply with orders from the Brazilian courts.
In addition to suspending the social network, the minister ordered the application of a daily fine of R$50,000 to individuals and legal entities that use a VPN to circumvent the suspension and access the platform. At first, Moraes also blocked VPN applications, but went back and decided to maintain only the fine for users who resort to the resource to circumvent the suspension of X.
“However, given the precautionary nature of the decision and the possibility of the company X Brasil Internet LTDA or Elon Musk, upon being summoned, fully complying with the court decisions, I am suspending the execution until the parties in the proceedings have expressed their views, avoiding any unnecessary and reversible inconvenience to third-party companies”, stated the minister.
The use of a virtual private network is not illegal in Brazil, but it does not exempt the user from liability in the event of illegal acts being committed in the online environment.
The Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) reported that will take action in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to review the application of fines to users. In a note, the OAB detailed that it will present a petition to the STF requesting the review or clarification of the section of Moraes’ decision that determines the application of a fine in the amount of R$50 thousand to all citizens who use VPN or other mechanisms to access the X platform.
“The application of a fine or any sanction can only occur after ensuring the adversarial system and full defense – never in a prior and summary manner”, highlighted the entity.
Used by companies
A common use case for VPNs is, for example, teleworking or working from home, when employees may need to access confidential company files from their homes. In this case, the IT team can configure the VPN on the employee’s computer and only traffic directed to the company’s servers passes through the private network, creating a secure path to the stored files.
Another common use is that internet content is not always accessible from anywhere and there are services and websites that can only be accessed in certain countries. So, when access to certain websites or services is blocked in a country, a VPN also allows you to bypass these restrictions.
There are several providers that provide this service to online users for a fee or for free. When using this connection, data is sent to a VPN server before reaching its final destination. At this server, the data is encrypted (with a secret code) and the IP address (the computer’s identity) is replaced with the IP of the VPN server. The encrypted data is then sent to its destination and, upon its return, it passes through the VPN server again to be decrypted.
This process makes it difficult for anyone to track the online activities of that device and protects the user from attacks or information theft. Imagine the internet as a big highway, where all the cars (which are the users’ data) travel. A VPN would be like a secret tunnel on this highway, where the users’ data is placed, encrypted and protected.
