Carmel High School recently blocked Hotspot Shield Virtual Private Network (VPN) due to its violation of Indiana’s tech plan. The plan states that VPN is a software tool that creates an “anonymous and encrypted” connection between the user and the internet by routing internet traffic through the VPN’s server. 

Aaron Claus, Carmel High School’s lead technician said, “(VPNs) are not allowed on the network, per the acceptable use policy. You’re not supposed to bypass our firewall. What a VPN does, it does exactly that. It bypasses our firewall, which allows you to get to other websites that we are supposed to be blocking, due to CIPA, Children’s Internet Prevention Act or Protection Act, and then also our network funding.”

Senior Amogh Motaganahalli said the school’s regulation of VPNs interfered with the websites he typically uses, which was a major inconvenience. 

He said, “My biggest inconvenience with VPN (regulation) is I can’t log into my games that I have on my phone. And the other day, I couldn’t log into something for school, I couldn’t log into Minga. It is so whack.” 

Claus said, “We don’t block Canvas, we don’t block Google, but because of our web filtering, Google and Canvas can be interfered with between you and their servers. Out of abundance of caution, it gives you a privacy warning. What you’re missing is the certificate, which is the Content Keeper certificate.” 

Senior Nicolas Palacios said that the school’s “abundance of caution” was an extreme inconvenience when trying to access not only games on his phone when outside of class, but also resources for school inside the classroom. 

He said, “The problems I have in my VPN is that websites I use for school for educational purposes can get banned or some games can be banned. They block Canvas, and I get a ‘403 Forbidden error’ and it just doesn’t make sense.”