The Google VPN
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I had no idea this was a thing.
Sure, Google, I'd totes trust you as my VPN.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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I agree George, there something very incongruent about using Google as your VPN.
But - they very explicitly state that they don't track you. It'd be hard for them to squirm out of this (and the loss of trust would be huge)
What does VPN log?
In order to provide peace of mind for our users that their activity is private from the VPN operator and from potential attackers, VPN by Google One does not log user activity on the network or other information that could reveal personally identifiable information about them.
The following data is NOT logged by the VPN for a given user:
Network traffic, including DNS
IP addresses of the devices connecting to the VPN
Bandwidth utilized by an individual user
Connection timestamps by user
Because it is necessary to ensure a healthy and performant VPN, the following kinds of data are logged at an aggregate level (individual users’ data cannot be identified) for performance monitoring and debugging purposes:
Aggregate throughput
Aggregate VPN tunnel uptime
Aggregate VPN tunnel setup latency
Aggregate Total bandwidth rate
Aggregate Packet loss rate
Aggregate VPN tunnel failure rates
Aggregate VPN tunnel retries
Aggregate Service/Server CPU and memory load
Aggregate VPN tunnel setup error rates
In order to measure overall service experience, debug the service, and prevent fraud without compromising user privacy, the following data may be collected for a user:
Use of the service in the last 28 days. This metric collects how often the service was used in the last 28 days but does not track the specific times they used the service nor the duration of the usage nor the amount of data used.
Number of recent attempts by a user to set up a VPN session to ensure that the user does not exceed the maximum number of allowed concurrent sessions. User IDs are encrypted and therefore cannot be personally identified by the concurrent session check.
Server error logs without request or response data.
Finally, for those users that wish to share feedback or errors with Google, the client application provides users the option to send Google application and system logs from their device which contain personally identifiable information (such as email) and is used for debugging purposes. This is an optional capability and requires user permission every time they wish to submit such information.
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I had no idea this was a thing.
Sure, Google, I'd totes trust you as my VPN.
@george-k said in The Google VPN:
I had no idea this was a thing.
Sure, Google, I'd totes trust you as my VPN.
And I would trust them because...LOLGF.
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They absolutely hoover up all the personal data they can on you - but they don't lie in the terms of service.
No one reads them and it essentially says "all your information belongs to us and we'll read your emails" in there.
These terms pretty explicitly say they won't harvest your info.
I don't think they'd run the risk of illegality for a minor service.
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Somebody should share some child pr0n via the vpn and see what happens. That would be a good test of Google‘s promises.
