According to RethinkDNS’s website, it is run by Celzero Pvt Ltd (India) as “Rethink: an Android Firewall and VPN app with a focus on anti-censorship and anti-surveillance.”
It also says in its privacy policy that it does not “collect, sell, license, share any data (personally identifiable or otherwise) from any Rethink-related Services.”
However, according to the VPN laws instituted by Indian authorities in 2022, “all VPN providers, data centers, and cloud service providers operating in India (are required) to collect and report extensive and accurate data from their users for five years.” This is also why ProtonVPN removed their servers in India then.
If RethinkDNS is registered as a VPN service in India, how does it manage to circumvent the local laws pertaining to VPNs? For non-India registered VPN services like Proton, it would be easy for them to simply remove all their data centers and servers located in India. But for India-registered VPN services like RethinkDNS, even if their data centers and servers are located overseas, do they not have to adhere to the local governing laws?
@ignoramous would you be interested in answering this question? Thank you!
Rethink is not a VPN service, but a firewall, it uses the VPN service of the Android device to connect, that’s all, ad blockers like Adaway for example use the same process.
Rethink also has its own dns servers too called RDNS. Which has both premium and free versions. But the app is highly customisable, i am using mullvad adblock inside it.
I am not sure how exactly are these configured but given its entirely an option you can basically use any other privacy respecting dns service inside it.
Thanks for the reply! I was confused by the official name of it being a “firewall and VPN app”.
What if Rethink decides to provide VPN services one day? I know this is hypothetical but I was looking through their FAQ in the meantime and it says:
“What RethinkDNS is not?
It isn’t a VPN, at least not yet. Though, it is effective in circumventing internet censorship in most if not all countries. Rethink DNS uses VPN APIs to only route the DNS traffic and not the actual internet traffic.”
Since they already have the existing methods/code/infrastructure(?) of VPN APIs to route DNS traffic, it wouldn’t be a far stretch for them to one day route actual internet traffic, and perhaps that is why they don’t discount the possibility of providing VPN services one day.
If that day comes - I know this is a huge “if” - would it be necessary for the RethinkDNS team to register the company in a more privacy-friendly country? I was reading the viral thread here discussing Adguard-Cyprus-Russia and that made me wonder about similar companies forced to take flight from their existing countries of registration because of new draconian laws.
