Export, Sanctions and Safety

Our position

We comply with United Kingdom and United States sanctions and export controls, and we do not help anyone to evade them. This site helps people understand internet censorship in Iran and links to tools that get around it. Getting around censorship is not the same as getting around sanctions or export controls. Nothing on this site is offered for that purpose, and you must not use it for that purpose.

Your safety comes first

Using censorship-circumvention tools can be illegal or dangerous in some countries, including Iran. No tool, including any tool named on this site, guarantees anonymity or safety. Your internet provider can usually see that you visited this website, even though the connection is encrypted.

Only you can judge the risk in your situation. Before you use any tool, think about who can see your device and your network, and what the consequences can be. If you can, get advice from a trusted digital-security organisation.

What this site does

This website is a monitoring dashboard. It does not host or distribute software downloads. It links to tools that other people, and the same author, publish elsewhere. A link is not a recommendation that a tool is safe for you.

United States

31 CFR 560.540, part of the US Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations, authorises software that is incident to, or enables, the exchange of communications over the internet to be provided to people in Iran, if the software is designated EAR99 or classified under ECCN 5D992.c. Since 17 May 2024 (89 FR 43311) this section has included, with amendments, the general licence that the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) previously published as General License D-2. OFAC's list of items under this section includes anti-censorship tools, virtual private network (VPN) client software and proxy tools.

Under the US Export Administration Regulations, encryption software that meets the mass-market criteria is generally classified under ECCN 5D992.c (the equivalent hardware entry is 5A992.c). Each publisher is responsible for the classification of its own software.

United Kingdom

We are not aware of any UK sanctions measure that prohibits making free personal communication and anti-censorship tools publicly available to ordinary people in Iran. Sanctions law changes, and it can apply differently to different people. You are responsible for obeying the laws that apply to you, including the laws of the country where you are.

Who must not use these tools

The following people and organisations must not use this site to find, download or use the tools that it links to. Some of these limits go further than the law requires, and we apply them as our own policy:

1. Any person or organisation on the UK sanctions list, on the US Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List) kept by OFAC, or on a United Nations sanctions list.

2. The Government of Iran, and any organisation that it owns or controls.

3. Anyone who acts for, or on behalf of, any of them.

4. Anyone who would use these tools for a commercial purpose that 31 CFR 560.540 does not authorise.

We do not knowingly provide any service to any of them. If any of these descriptions applies to you, you must not download or use the tools linked from this site.

No legal advice

This page gives general information. It is not legal advice. If you need advice about sanctions, export control or local law, ask a qualified lawyer.

For questions about this page, write to [email protected].