Using VPN may expose users to spying, US lawmakers warn

A group of US lawmakers is urging the country’s top intelligence official to explain whether using VPN services could expose Americans to government spying under surveillance laws.

In a letter sent Thursday to United States Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, six Democratic lawmakers questioned if VPN users risk being treated as foreigners, potentially losing constitutional protections against warrantless surveillance.

The letter was signed by prominent Democrats, including Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Alex Padilla, along with Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Sara Jacobs.

The intelligence agencies will treat VPN users as foreigners because their actual location remains hidden from view. The US government uses this classification to conduct surveillance activities against people who are not American citizens living outside the country.

The agencies will treat users as foreigners when their location information remains unknown, which will enable them to gather more data about those users.

How does VPN use affect surveillance?

VPNs establish internet connections through worldwide server systems that can operate from any geographic location. The servers gather information from multiple users about their location, which creates difficulties in tracking the actual position of each user.

The American user who connects to a foreign server will present an online identity that resembles a non-US user and thus becomes untraceable.

The issue relates to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits government agencies to gather international communication of foreign nationals located outside the United States.

Critics say the programme also captures large volumes of Americans’ data, which can later be searched without a warrant.

The lawmakers used Executive Order 12333 as evidence to show that foreign intelligence collection operates under weaker legal protections. The group issued a warning that VPN user tracking through foreignness assumptions will lead to unauthorised access of their personal information.