Yigor Sak, co-founder and CEO of Canada-based Windscribe VPN, did not believe his eyes when he received a letter from the Department of Justice Department of Canadian, in which he was informed that he was being accused for the crime of “illegal access to an information system” in Greece.
“We receive a lot of subpona every single month, but it has never happened before. It was extremely unexpected. They were very unpredictable. Just wanted to get one person as soon as possible, “Sak told Techradar, stating that the allegations were in relation to an alleged internet crime committed by an unknown user in June 2023.
Two years later, on 11 April, 2025, an Athens court dismissed a historic victory by the Athens court for no-log VPN services. However, this comes, because MPs worldwide have considered new laws that can expand the current data retention obligations for Windscribe and some of the best VPN providers equally. We talked with Sak to understand what is at stake.
Yigor Sak
Since the establishment of the windmill in 2016, Yigor Sak has retained a bold principle: collect only data for service operation. A passionate lawyer for online privacy and free expression, Saak promises to manufacture products that prefer users on advertising networks or governments.
A slippery slope
The Windscribe case is a clear example of the ongoing tension between law enforcement and privacy-protection technology.
You must have heard about the idea of creating a backdoor in encrypted messaging apps. This argues from police officers that this level of privacy interferes with criminal examination, in fact prevents them from catching bad people.
Strict requirements for tech companies are another aspect of the same debate to be aware of how customers use their services.
Simply put, the law enforcement bodies rapidly want a systematic accessible record that does what does on the Internet to fight crime and in particular, protects children online. Nevertheless, technical experts have long argued that these obligations will harm everyone’s privacy and security instead.
This debate has been especially provoking in Europe recently.
Although Digital Privacy Advocate again managed to save encryption in France again last March, online oblivion and safe encryption are now at risk in Switzerland, a country was once praised for its great commitment to the online confidentiality of citizens. If passed, these new obligations will make Swiss No-Logue Services Providers such as proton VPN, Proton Mail, NYMVPN and Threma impossible.
On a large scale, after trying to pass a proposal to scan all people in lookouts for child sexual abuse materials, the European Union has now unveiled a new scheme to deal with encryption and no-log software. Protection is the first step in the European Union Commission’s strategy that protects valid and effective access to data for law enforcement in the block.
“To be able to help such governments to catch bad people and protect children online, providers must collect extensive logging on all users and collect data, in which their identity and everything else (they do), which is a problem,” Sak said.
As Sak states, Canada is currently free from laws that will require windmill and similar services to store any details about their users.
Nevertheless, “all kinds of silly goods are proposed,” Sak told Techradar, saying that he is most concerned at this time that he is associated with age verification requirements.
For example, many American states have so far implemented age verification laws to prevent minors from reaching harmful materials, including adult-level material. To do this, these laws require online service providers to collect large amounts of individual identifier data, such as the identity issued by the government.
Privacy experts strongly criticized the US age verification requirements, warning that these laws have put all the risk of confidentiality. From his side, Sak is also concerned about how VPN services can become the next goal of this legal battle to get rid of online oblivion.
He said: “This is a fairly slippery slope as you can use a VPN to reach a prohibited website. This means that VPNs are potentially providing this material to minors. Therefore, why should a VPN not be subject to similar laws? It will beat the entire point of using a privacy-oriented VPN.”
While VPN may be able to hide the source of your internet activity, they are not fools – nor should they be necessary to reach the legally protected speech. https://t.co/rmzhsmdzkJanuary 19, 2025
“If such a law was to be passed in Canada, we would have no option but to go into a separate jurisdiction, as we would not be able to work under our current privacy policy,” Sak said.
More data, more problems
It is common in all these legal efforts that they may need technical providers including VPN firms, so that all users’ identification and track records of activities to keep their current infrastructure and policies, whenever they need.
Let us forget to each other for underlying security risks to record all these sensitive information – hackers can dissolve these details, for example. Let us or the European Union police officers also forget about the possibility of misuse of these powers, which are better survey for citizens.
The elephant in the room here is that it is very different in countries around the world which forms an online crime. Popper countries are regularly used to persecute people for their political affiliation, religion or sexual preferences.
So, what will happen when using a privacy tool such as a private virtual private network (VPN) or safe email service cannot be sure that your activities will not be detected?
“Once you have data, you have to cooperate with everyone,” Sak told Techradar. “This means many people can end up In jail for activism, to share some lambs, or to be a whistleblower. ,
What will happen next?
Windscribe’s Greek court case is still another example that, despite the global push to reduce online oblivion to fight back against crime, judges are still recognizing the importance of no-log VPN.
This type of principle may be the reason that the European Union legalists still cannot agree on the so -called chat control proposal so that all citizens can be scanned after 3 years after 3 years to scan the chat of all citizens.
He said, VPN providers are growing rapidly at an intersection of this debate in Western democracy. Take extended age verification laws from America in Europe Now. Take the fact that some European Union experts also mentioned VPN as an important challenge for the first for the first time with encrypted messaging apps.
The road is still long and bumpy, but what Sak learned from his troubles in Greece is that the fight is all worth it.
He said: “It is difficult to say what kind of example this (case) is, if any. But my biggest tech is never to accept these things and always fights till the end, even if it takes time, it takes money, and some veins also.”
