About Bordermark

Bordermark is an independent field guide to VPN law and internet access, country by country. We exist for one reader: the person about to cross a border — a traveller, an expat, a remote worker, a student heading abroad — who needs to know whether the privacy tool they use every day is legal, restricted or risky where they're going.

What we do

We track the legal status of VPN use in the countries people actually ask about, and we translate dense law and shifting enforcement into plain language. Every country entry states the legal reality, explains what it means for a visitor versus a resident, and carries a named source. Our home page shows the border board — a status grid of countries by tier — and our legality-by-country guide goes deeper.

How we check the law

This is a YMYL (your-money-or-your-life) subject, so we hold ourselves to strict rules. We work from primary and reputable secondary sources — national laws and regulators, and organisations such as Human Rights Watch — and we date every claim. Where a fact can't be verified to a current source, we say so rather than guess. We describe legal frameworks and their practical effect; we never encourage anyone to break a local law, and we frame everything around legitimate traveller and expat access and digital-rights information.

What we don't do

We don't run fabricated speed tests or claim measurements we didn't take. We don't call any tool 'anonymous' or 'untraceable' — a VPN shifts your trust to the provider, and we say so. We don't accept payment to change a country's tier or a provider's assessment. And we don't offer legal advice: we point you to the law and tell you to confirm it, because rules in this area change fast.

How we're funded

Some outbound links to VPN providers are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you subscribe through them — see our affiliate disclosure for the full picture. It never influences a fact, a tier or a recommendation. We deliberately recommend providers that pay us nothing, such as Mullvad and Astrill for China, where they're the honest pick.