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Google Privacy Technology Your Rights Online

Google is Bringing Its VPN To Mac and Windows PCs (theverge.com) 35

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Google is bringing its VPN access to desktop today. Google One subscribers on Premium plans (2TB or higher) can now download VPN apps for Windows and macOS, allowing users in 22 countries to mask their IPs on desktop and reduce online trackers. From a report: While Google is expanding its VPN service, it still comes with the same restrictions as Android and iOS. You'll only be able to use the service in one of the supported countries, and you won't be able to use Google's VPN freely to avoid geo-restrictions on live sports or other streaming video. Much like Apple's iCloud Plus VPN service, the Google One VPN won't let you assign an IP address from a different country manually. Instead, Google assigns you an IP in the region you're connecting from.
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Google is Bringing Its VPN To Mac and Windows PCs More

Google is Bringing Its VPN To Mac and Windows PCs

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  • One network to rule them all (Score:5, Informative)

    by 0x537461746943 ( 781157 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @03:18PM (#63039085)

    You are likely already feeding the company with web browser meta data... why not send all your data through their network? I am sure they won't want to analyze and profit off of it.

    • Re:One network to rule them all (Score:5, Funny)

      by fustakrakich ( 1673220 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @03:59PM (#63039245) Journal

      Yeah, a "Google VPN" is kind of an oxymoron.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TWX ( 665546 )

        Mmmhmm.

        I generally like their cloud services, but that's because they took what had been annoying in using workstation transfer software like Palm Desktop or the client for Windows CE and made it work essentially seamlessly through the Internet. I didn't have to download my e-mails, maps, books, contacts, etc to my desktop computer first, then synch over a serial or USB cable to the handheld device.

        That's already giving Google more than I really wish that I was though. I look at that as a necessary ill, b

      • The same company that cock-gobbled to China to help spy on their citizens. VPN - Very Poached Network?
      • No it's not, it's exactly what it says on the label, it's a Virtually Private Network, in the same way that Skanky Sue is still virtually a virgin and Honest Joe's used cars are virtually new.

    • Does it matter? The idea of trusting *any* third party is silly. However there are some far more trustworthy than others. Google is a known quantity. They "protect" your data like Coke protects its coke recipe. They hoover it up, use it as part of their special sauce, and all 3rd parties get is some anonymised and generalised access to you. Compare that to ISPs which have been caught actually just selling the raw data with all personal identifiers intact.

      It's like people saying don't trust American police,

  • I googled for lists of VPNs which are free, and then I installed one into a VM I use for nothing else, with a free email account I use for nothing else (and which doesn't require phone or email) to create the VPN account. Thanks for the help, Google!

    • Re:Google brought me a free VPN already (Score:5, Interesting)

      by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @03:50PM (#63039217) Homepage

      I googled for lists of VPNs which are free, and then I installed one into a VM I use for nothing else, with a free email account I use for nothing else (and which doesn't require phone or email) to create the VPN account. Thanks for the help, Google!

      Be very careful. One thing to be aware of: many of the "free VPNs" work through a reciprocal arrangements. That means that the "company" behind it doesn't have to have to pay for a datacenter with a ton of bandwidth, but they simply direct the traffic between various customers to keep their costs low. Your traffic is tunneled through some random other customer's PC in England to let you watch BBC content, but in return you agreed to have other people's traffic tunneled through your PC and onto the internet using your ISP connection.

      That means that some rando may be hacking government PCs, stealing data, downloading child porn, or who knows what other abhorrent behavior where they want to hide their identity, and have it appear like it all originates from YOUR IP address.

      Stop and ask yourself: who is actually paying for the infrastructure and upkeep? Is "but it's free!" really worth the potential headaches it could lead to?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TWX ( 665546 )

        So just Tor but with egress nodes rather than internal host endpoints?

        • Hmm... like Tor, but without the onion. That is, the people in the middle of the chain can see exactly what you're up to, and know that it was you and not someone else. So sadly, not at all like Tor :-(

      • I did do some research before choosing. It's not a reciprocal VPN, it's just a limited transfer trial. I only get 10GB/mo, which is enough for what I want it for.

  • "reducing trackers" == "ensuring that sure that Google (and Google alone) won't miss out on anything your PC might be doing, regardless of what browser you use"
  • Using your ISP to provide your VPN??? LOL....ok....

  • Trust a Privacy Rapist with its VPN tunnel? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @03:48PM (#63039201)

    yeah, hard pass on that!

  • now google can siphon more of my data. Kinda anti VPN though, VPN's aren't supposed to collect data.
    • Remember the song by R.E.M., "Man on the moon" ? Yea, now its stuck in your head right? Change the lyrics to "they put a man-in-the-middle" enough said.

  • If there was ONE company I would NOT trust... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @04:01PM (#63039247)
    If there was ONE company I would NOT trust to run my VPN without spying on me, it would be the one that USED TO say "Don't be evil".

    • Curiously, did you post this through a VPN or did you trust your ISP with your data? Because we know between Google and ISPs, one group is well known for just selling your data to whomever wants raw without even bother to deanonymise it, and that party ain't Google.

      Whenever this topic comes up its typically filled with an insane level of hypocrisy. Google's not ideal by any means, but it certainly is far better than what people do *normally*.

  • Why did Google removed L2TP VPN from it Android OS ?
    Why it made the life of OpenVPN user miserable over LTE/UDP ?

    Ah..... it all became clear now... they wanted to upsell their own VPN product, that will probably die in 3 years from now... and go feed the Google Cemetery....

    Shessssssssshhhhhh.....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
      Well l2tp and openvpn over udp might not like the cgnat your carrier might be using for their non corp costumers. As to why Google chose to remove l2tp from Android, no idea, but yea it sounds a bit fishy. Ok not so fishy after all l2tp with psk is apparently considered insecure so that might have something todo with the oprions remocal. If the remote end sopports Ike 2 that might be an option

      • L2TP with Certificate is perfectly fine afaik... and L2TP with PSK or Certs used to work fine even if PSK isn't that safe with weak passwords, when there feature was still there in Android 10 I believe. It was removed for their upcoming VPN Service. Even MacOS and Windows still supported L2TP VPN.

        And there shouldn't be any problem with a carrier cgnat but I get it, it is a possibility heh.

  • I'm actually on one of the premium plans and I have been able to try it. And it's... OK, I guess? I also browse with multiple ad- and script blocking tools and use things like Tampermonkey to have a fairly controlled browsing experience anyway.

    I didn't notice that it particularly slowed my browsing, which is useful, except that my primary need for a VPN on a personal device has more to do with downloading someone else's intellectual property than conceptual privacy; I have a decent handle on privacy anyway

  • This is all about Google removing the competition from accessing all of your meta data etc.
    It's a land grab, nothing more.

    I will stick with pi-hole

  • Please explain (Score:4, Informative)

    by DarkRookie2 ( 5551422 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2022 @05:31PM (#63039487)
    Why I would want to use a VPN made by the biggest advertisers in the world.
    Part of the reason to use them is to somewhat dodge Google, not embrace it.
    • Its kind of like the phone company selling you a lot of features like call blocking and caller-id designed to help you NOT talk on the phone. As opposed to just disconnecting service, lol.

    • Why I would want to use a VPN made by the biggest advertisers in the world.

      Because it would be provided free with another subscription of yours.
      Because alternate free services are far worse including routing other people's traffic through your connection "reciprocal VPN"
      Because Google is a known quantity and it's better to trust your data to an advertising business which has incentive to protect it (I usually use the example of Coke protecting it's recipe), vs companies (like several American ISPs) who just hand over your data without any deanonymising or what so ever to whomever

  • Proton has way fewer restrictions, and it seems to respect privacy. Iâ(TM)m curious to hear exactly how his Google VPN protects privacy. I have a 2TB plan so probably could get this. I just donâ(TM)t see the vale other than âoefreeâ.
  • Data for the search warrants to scavenge : https://reason.com/2021/10/12/... [reason.com]

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