The Ministry of Digital Development informed Internet companies about a “significant limitation” in identifying VPNs on iPhones - RBC

The Ministry of Digital Development admitted that the detection of VPNs on iPhone devices is “significantly limited” due to the nature of the iOS operating system, which does not allow applications to receive data from other services. This was reported by RBC with reference to the department's methodological recommendations sent to the largest Russian Internet companies and three sources in the IT market.

The document was sent to more than 20 companies, including Sber, Yandex, VK, Wildberries, Ozon and Avito. According to the publication, the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, instructed them to limit access to their services to users with VPN enabled by April 15. Otherwise, companies may lose their IT accreditation and related benefits, as well as be excluded from the list of pre-installed applications.

According to the recommendations, companies should identify VPNs in three stages: by the user's IP address, through native applications on the device, and by checking on other operating systems. However, the second step is almost impossible on iOS because Apple's security policies isolate apps from each other. At the same time, on Android such checks are available through system tools.

The document also lists cases when it is difficult or impossible to detect a VPN: for example, if it is configured on a router, used in a virtual machine, or running in split tunneling mode. In addition, new VPN services appear faster than their IP address databases are updated.

RBC's interlocutors note that the proposed methodology can lead to errors: users outside Russia and those who use corporate VPNs risk getting blocked. For the latter, it is planned to create a separate “white list”.