With a touch irony, Google is launching a VPN service to guard user privacy.
The VPN is a free perk on the $ 9.99 per month 2TB plan on Google One, the company’s cloud storage service. Soon, the Google One app for Android will be launching a new feature that can be used to activate a VPN from the user’s smartphone.
The company offers the VPN as a protection to prevent hackers from eavesdropping on users’ unencrypted web traffic if their phone is ever connected to a public Wi-Fi network. A VPN can stop potential eavesdropping by encrypting the phone’s internet connection, thereby encrypting the data flowing to and from the device.
“We have already built advanced security into all of our products, and therefore the VPN extends that security to encrypt all online traffic on your phone, no matter which app or browser you use,” the company wrote in today’s announcement. “The VPN is integrated into the Google One app. With just one tap you can be sure that your connection is protected from hackers. ”
However, Google’s decision to offer a VPN will definitely raise some eyebrows. After all, the company’s entire business model is about tracking your internet activity in order to serve relevant ads.
VPNs also work by broadcasting the user’s internet connection to a private server so that the VPN provider (in this case, Google) can theoretically see all of the web traffic flowing through the computer. However, Google promises its customers that the company can run a trusted VPN service.
“With VPN from Google One, we will never use the VPN connection to track, log or sell your online activities,” the company wrote in an article about the technology. “Some minimum logging is done to ensure quality of service, but your VPN associated network traffic or IP address is never logged.”
“To demonstrate how our design works, we made the code that runs on a user’s device available as open source code. In the coming months, we will deploy the server-side user authentication mechanism as open source code and provide the results of an ongoing third-party review, “the company added.
This article details Google’s approach to VPN technology. It offers speeds over 300 Mbit / s. The document also states that the company wants to “make VPN technology available to as many users as possible,” a signal that Google has long-term ambitions in the VPN market, which is already highly competitive.
The company plans to launch the VPN service for the primary time within the US market within the coming weeks. It is initially only available for the Google One Android app. However, within the months to return , Google plans to expand Google One’s VPN service to other platforms like iOS, Windows, and Mac.
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