Chile was a global pioneer of net neutrality, writing it into law in August 2010 (Law 20,453), and Freedom House scored it 87 out of 100 in Freedom on the Net 2025, calling it one of the world's most open online environments. Home internet is fast: Ookla ranked Chile third in the world for fixed broadband in August 2026, with a median download of 364 Mbps.
The main exception is gambling. In September 2023 the Supreme Court ordered the provider Mundo PacĂfico to block 23 international betting sites, because the state-owned Polla Chilena de Beneficencia is the only company authorised to run gambling platforms, and other providers agreed with the telecoms regulator SUBTEL to block the same sites. Some legal experts objected that those providers had no court order of their own, and by November 2023 the sites had changed their addresses to get around the block.
Logging is limited but real. Under Article 222 of the Criminal Procedure Code, internet providers must keep their subscribers' IP connection records for at least a year. Interception needs a court order and lasts up to 60 days, which a judge can extend. The 2024 Cybersecurity Framework Law excludes IP addresses from its definition of personal data, so they can be shared after cybersecurity incidents.
Two newer laws strengthen privacy. The Cybersecurity Framework Law (Law 21,663), published in April 2024, says that every person has the right to adopt the security techniques they consider necessary, including encryption, and created a National Cybersecurity Agency. The Personal Data Protection Act, passed in August 2024 and published in December 2024, takes effect two years after publication, in December 2026; it brings Chile's rules close to the GDPR and creates an independent data protection agency.
GhostShield has no server in Chile, so it cannot give you a Chilean IP address. The closest locations are in the United States, with Miami the nearest. GhostShield uses standard WireGuard.
International Privacy Standards
Internet freedom varies significantly by country. Organizations like Freedom House track global internet freedom annually, while the EU's GDPR has set new standards for data protection worldwide. Reporters Without Borders monitors press freedom and digital access restrictions globally.
A VPN helps you maintain consistent privacy protections regardless of which country you're browsing from, ensuring your data stays encrypted and your activity stays private.
The privacy landscape in Chile
The biggest recent scandal is about surveillance. As of August 2024, a former judge was under house arrest and a former head of army intelligence was detained over alleged illegal wiretapping of four military officers and the investigative journalist Mauricio Weibel, who had reported on fraud and embezzlement in the military.
The state has bought surveillance tools before. A 2016 Derechos Digitales report found that Chile had licensed Hacking Team's Galileo spyware, which the investigative police (PDI) said it used under judicial authorisation, and in 2020 Citizen Lab named the PDI as a likely client of Circles, a firm said to monitor phones without hacking the devices themselves.
In May 2018 SUBTEL ordered telecom companies to hand over the phone numbers and regions of all mobile subscribers, about 15 million people. A VPN does not change what your provider knows about you as a customer; it hides what you do online from the network. It does not stop phishing, so the usual care with links and codes still applies.
Top reasons people use a VPN in Chile
At home, a VPN keeps the sites you visit away from your provider, which keeps a year of IP connection records, and from whoever runs the Wi-Fi you are on, including public Wi-Fi in cafes and airports.
Because the closest GhostShield servers are in the United States, a connection through them has more delay than a domestic one. Miami is the nearest; New York and Los Angeles come next.
Chileans abroad cannot get a Chilean address from GhostShield, so Canal 13, TVN or Mega programmes that play only in Chile stay out of reach. For neighbouring countries, see the Argentina guide.