Spyke
lemmy.dbzer0.com

A private vpn is an oxymoron. Since you tunnel all your data to some server.

Google and privacy is an oxymoron.

"Google private vpn" would be a mega oxymoron.

158
lemmy.one

Not really. What if it's your VPN? Mine allows me access to my home network, which is its primary focus, but it also obfuscates what my phone is doing online, and blocks trackers.

(Adguard home and wireguard)

It also lets me use my phone on 4chan... so there's that.

35
Diabolo96reply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

If you're of the few people on earth to care enough and knows enough to set it's own vpn, sure. but otherwise, NordVPN gonna still sponsor youtubers and lure people into a false sense of privacy.

0
lemmy.ca

Strps to set up my own VPN:

  1. Navigate to my router’s configuration page
  2. Select Configure VPN server
  3. Click Generate Certificate button
  4. Download certificate
  5. Enable VPN networking on my device
  6. Import downloaded certificate

It’s that simple. If you don’t have your own firewall, you can just deploy Tailscale on all devices you want to be able to communicate with each other, which uses Wireguard under the hood.

16

As someone who manages a tailscale network at my work...I just want to point out that tailscale is a tiny bit more complicated than just downloading and installing. Not much but...

That said the ability to automate wireguard connections is wonderful and everyone should check it out.

6
lemmy.world

I thought Nord was one of the ones that doesn't keep activity logs, no?

2
Natanaelreply
slrpnk.net

I don't have any evidence to the contrary, but in general it's suspicious when a company markets features like that so hard when there's no reliable way an outsider can verify that the claim is accurate (still)

4

I remember this, and a quick google corroborates, that they've had 3 independent 3rd party audits and have been verified each time as not keeping activity logs. I think they're one of the good ones.

1

“Private” in “virtual private network” means “routed by different rules”. It’s the same “private” that’s in “private Internet Protocol addresses”.

It was never about personal privacy.

4
Zerushreply
lemmy.ml

It's an oximoron in every company which make money with surveillance advertisings. Google undoubtedly has apps and services with a very high quality and often without real competition or alternative, but this has a very high cost and if the main income, apart from some paid services, is based on selling user data to advertising companies, it is logical and almost inevitable that it becomes a data moloch that uses any dirty trick to obtain these. It is an axiom: power corrupts

Mozilla now regrets having signed with Google as a sponsor and is now trying to get out of this contract, especially since Google plans to introduce this WEI DRM, but Alphabet is not doing this the easy way and Mozilla depends a lot on this money to maintain its infrastructure. We will see what comes of this, but it is really urgent that Mozilla changes its business model, it would be very desirable and necessary.

Moral: If you want to maintain your independence and freedom, do not accept outside investors

2

tunnel all your data through a very special GOOGLE server.

1
derangerreply
sh.itjust.works

Makes me cringe thinking of all those years I was using Google DNS, back when I believed that “don’t be evil” shit

38

NextDNS, been using it for a year and a half now. I like the ease of use and privacy/ad block filter options.

1
vladreply
lemmy.sdf.org

Or, they'll bake it into Chrome, thus controlling all advertising.

17

It launched in 2020 so giving it another 2 is a long shot

1

Oh sure. Use the company known for mining the fuck out of personal data to protect my personal data from being mined.

73
gerryflapreply
feddit.nl

A VPN doesn't really protect you from Google though. They get their data through trackers, which doesn't get blocked by a VPN. Obviously I'd still not use a Google VPN, because who knows what they'd do with that data

15
lemmy.world

No one knows what any VPN provider would do with that data so that's not google exclusive.

4
feddit.it

That's a fact. But, in the first place, VPNs weren't invented for privacy.

1
feddit.it

It also depens on what informations the host has about you. Bare minimum is the IP, but it isn't really an identification

1

If you're hosting a VPN in your house, all traffic is going to/from your device and your home encrypted, and your home and the isp unencrypted. Since it's in your home, everything you do on the VPN tunnel can be seen on the other side by your isp.

E: autocorrect corrections

1
XTornadoreply
lemmy.ml

Idk... maybe not great for privacy but I just test it (I have been a subscriber for a while and didn't know there was a VPN) and it bypasses my country blocks of certain piracy pages so so far it's kind of usefull.

7
_TKreply

Just be careful with that. If Google is logging your sessions, then your country's government can request that data. The idea that Google wouldn't keep logs is laughable.

3

Sure, I don't care in my case tough. It's not illegal to access them even tough they are blocked.

1

This is funny. Please pipe ALL of your online activities through us. We won't spy, gather, sell, or snitch.

Get fucked.

58
lemmy.ml

At least Google VPN is honest about who tracks you with this VPN, LOL

52
melooonereply
feddit.de

I was also curious, so I found this page. It looks nothing like the screenshot (maybe because Im on mobile), and the only sentence coming close, under the "Extra online protection" heading, is: "Reduce online tracking by hiding your IP address". As if that means anything if you have Google apps installed on your phone.

But after reading more, I found a link to their how-it-works page, which then linked to their github page. Is beeing open-source really enough to show it's secure and private? I still wouldn't trust them.

10

Being open source by default doesn't make a project secure and privacy friendly (especially if it's server sided code. You can't really verify for sure)

8

The VPN itself is secure, but it depends of an Google One account (not free). And respect of this, I found this in the FAQ page

Also, while VPN by Google One secures your device connection, it does not affect how Google collects data when you use our other products and services. For example, depending on your sync settings, Chrome will continue to store your Chrome browsing history to your Google Account. To manage the kinds of data saved to your account, you can review your Google Account’s privacy controls.

This mean, that my Screenshot isn't a Joke, even if you use this VPN which certainly protect you from third party tracking, Google remain logging your data, because the VPN use it's own Google servers with your Google One account, not free public servers, like other VPN. It's a similar scam like the Opera "VPN". Nice try, Google

If you want a good VPN, use Nord VPN, or if you want a good trustworthy free VPN, use Proton VPN free (no logs, no limits in amount of data nor speed, encrypted at military level, but limited to 23 servers in three countries and use in only one device (PC or Mobile) in the free version), Proton is also OpenSource.

At least, if you only need a VPN to protect your mobile in a public WiFi, Calyx VPN also maybe enough, it's FOSS, encrypted, no logs, no account needed, no limits, but only one server from the Calyx institute, a non-profit education and research organization. Download from F-Droid.

3
kbin.social

I'm thinking of the target user for this: For us here it's a really unfunny joke. For the people wanting to do "non-kosher" stuff like watching streaming for other countries or even outright pirating i don't think Google's gonna have their back. People trying to hide their identity while doing compromising stuff (like anything sexual or identity related, not illegal but not something they want in public) hopefully know not to trust Google on this. And corporate users already have their own corporate VPNs, don't think they're aiming for those (yet).

Who the fuck is left as potential user? My only conclusion is the terminally gullible. I see no other option. And since of course there's a sucker born every minute it'll have millions of users...

48
Pietsonreply
kbin.social

They're fishing for people who think it's important to have one because YouTube sponsorships told them so.

38

But they're all using a discounted NordVPN thanks to Warographics.

7
Facebonesreply
reddthat.com

It can be easy to forget when you run in these techy circles - There are alot of people whose entire knowledge/existence of the internet is entirely isolated within Facebook. They get a new phone, install Facebook, and never leave. Any web use is via the inbuilt browser.

That's the most extreme, but beyond that is the same but anything non Facebook is exclusively Google. They don't even know that you could have a non-Gmail email account. LOADS of people have never owned a PC now, they grew up on a smartphone and android (or istuff) is literally their only comprehension of the web.

22

For casual people traveling that don't want their free wifi being spied on. Also it's free.

11

I used it when my wife was at the hospital and they had a public wifi network with no password. I already have Google One, so it was a no Brainer in my case.

11

They are left with a sample size exactly as large or as small as the body of users who still google anything.

5

Any VPN is fine for piracy IMO. Any gap whatsoever between copyright troll torrent peers including you in their mass automated letters to ISPs solves the problem, it isn't a high bar.

3

I pirate the shit out of torrents on Google VPN for years no problems. Spectrum kept hassling me getting caught twice in one month. Switched to Google and never got bothered again. They don't throttle torrents either.

2
lemmy.world

The point of a VPN is to protect your privacy. Google is the last company I would trust to do that.

48
ludreply
lemm.ee

A VPN doesn't help that much anyways for privacy.

8

I'm surprised meta don't create a vpn product.

But yeah, No way either of them would ever be my vpn.

1

There are way worst VPNs out there, they are not only a scam and spyware, like Google- or Opera"VPNs", they also dangerous. eg Hola VPN 🥶 Apart of Windscribe, Proton and maybe Calyx, there isn't any trustworth free VPN out there, and all free, even if they are trustworth are limited, in use of monthly amount of data (10 Gb in Windscribe), or/and in the amount of servers. If a free VPN offers a lot of servers AND unlimited amount of data, by definition is a scam or worse. Servers cost money and free VPN only can offer free dedicated public servers and there a not so much, only a few in some countries.

1
lemmy.ml

Damn, people here really misunderstand the threat surface. The Google VPN is just fine for staying safe from things like rogue wifi hotspots and even Stingray devices to some extent. It's also makes it much harder for your ISP to data mine your web activity. Obviously if you have an Android device using Google services, Google already has access to pretty much any information they might get from the VPN service. If you are de-Googled, then obviously you'd never use this.

For the vast majority of people, privacy should be what happens outside of your curated public image. Everyone has a public image. If you try to be completely dark all the time, chances are you will slip up and just end up in an even worse position because you don't understand when or how you've lost control. This is counterintelligence 101. Real first day stuff, but so many of the 'pop-security' influencers on the internet struggle with it, because they don't have any practical CI training. However, having a public image doesn't mean you cede all control to every observer. Obviously there are many choices for VPNs, but for everyday use, this VPN Google bundles with various other products is generally high quality.

43
Fadesreply
lemmy.world

There are quite simply better services out there, why defend a mega corp? You said it yourself they will sell every fucking byte of data, VPNs aren’t hard to figure out especially these days with ezpz UX.

Truly fuck this service, it’s not like it’s the only one with low barrier of entry, it provides some security but by nature dissolves privacy. You also can’t shift your location at all so it’s even less useful

Mullvad for example is easy as FUCK is super cheap (google one vpn is essentially the same pricing model for basic, $2 diff, the difference being mullvad doesn’t limit your data like google one does!!!!) and performative, as well as anonymous, no account or bullshit, plays nice with their simple-as-fuck default user apps or with others like WireGuard for more config

WHY use an inferior service that fucks you? Especially as it limits amount of data whereas mulvad doesn’t.

It’s worse in every fucking way

19

An easy barrier of entry isn't always the issue at hand. I think what the user is saying, hate Google or not, you are at the very least safe to some degree. A lot of people don't realize that VPNS are just ways of manipulating where your data goes and who sees it and that VPNs can be abused as services even if they aren't Google.

Those same services can sell your data just the same as Google. Let's not forget that the "mega corp" everyone loves to hate is the reason you have Android competing against iOS which is part of another mega corp. People on Lemmy should get the fuck off their high horses.

10
Curly722reply
lemmy.world

Fucken hilarious since I'm currently dealing with newborn. Granted, huggies diapers have held back huuge poops.

1

I just find out and I have been paying for years... so they don't advertise it very well that's for sure...

9
lemmy.world

They want to make sure noone else can steal your data..

37

Most people browse with Chrome and possibly with Google's DNS, so this really doesn't make any difference from a privacy standpoint.

32
lemmy.one

So long as the majority doesn't know any better, it's profitable.

looks at my Pixel 6

Well, now I feel dumb.

19
feddit.it

Had to buy a Pixel 6a to ne able to install grapheneOS, and I did buy it renewed

11

Same, with Pixel 4A. But now that the Pixel line has abandoned the 3.5mm jack I will look elsewhere for my next phone and ROM.

3
lemm.ee

if we're being honest this is probably just as good for privacy as most popular vpns (sooo not much and over advertising how much they protect you)

they did release a white paper on how the service works if you trust it's what they're actually doing. https://one.google.com/about/vpn/howitworks

31
lemm.ee

I keep literally all private data in Google. When I opened, refinanced, paid off my mortgage with Chase, I was inundated with calls and mail because my bank sold my data, account balances and contact info. Somewhere within Google is all of my private email and AFAICT, they haven't ever sold any data from it.

Google does some bad stuff. They sell access to you, not your data.

6

When people talk about "Google stealing your data" they are referring to non personal data related to things you buy so that advertisers can target their market better, they aren't like trading secrets and tracking where you go so they can jump out and I dunno, scare you or some shit? No it's just for as revenue stuff. They aren't even serving you more ads they are just serving you more accurate ones because those will generate more revenue from advertisers. Nothing is shared with them like your name or address or even your age really (just a general age group)

0
Avgreply
lemm.ee

They've had one for a while as far as I know but it didn't work for me outside of the US so it was useless for me since I used to be safer abroad.

5

Yeah, as a heavy Google user I would use this if I had a reason to use a VPN. Google is scraping all my information anyway from my Android phone, my Google searches, and G-Mail, Maps, etc. They're not going to gain any additional information about me from usage of a VPN.

This is probably true for anyone using Google One.

If I had an iPhone or used DuckDuckGo or Firefox was taking other security measures, it's probably pointless, but I've just gone all in on only Google have any of my data.

2
lemmy.world

That would be like hiring professional bank robbers with a long string of hits to provide security for a bank.

28
SeabassDanreply
lemmy.world

Not trusting big Goog at all here, but some of the best hackers have been known to get hired by big corporations or the government, seeing as how they're the best at what to look for.

12

Bruh, you have a cybersec violation on your rep sheet and you couldn't get a job sweeping gravel off a cybersec company's parking lot.

"Cool cyber hacker gets hired by glowie boys" happens only in movies. The risk just isn't worth it. In the very rare cases where the skill is worth the risk, which it never is, rest assured there is a handler team authorised to break both hands, the second the hacker goes off script.

3

In this situation Google controls the whole setup and is not under any oversight from the customers (i.e. those using the VPN).

In that example of yours they would be a still active hacker whose prime source of income is hacking and who makes way more money from hacking than from said gigs for the "big corporations or the government" and who isn't at all being directly whatched by their employers to make sure they don't abuse the situation.

Would you give a know active black hat a gig doing penetration testing, which they can do from their own place using whatever they want with no oversight and were the possible profit they can make selling what they find in your systems vastly outweighs what you're paying them?

1
lemmy.world

Aren't some of the more profitable and secure services created by those trained to break security?

6

Well, Google continues to have the profit motivation of selling people's personal data, whilst the way black hats turn into white hats is that they can make more money (or at least safer) by helping to improve security rather than break it.

You don't really hire an active black hat to do penetration testing into your system when they can make way more money selling what they'll find in your system than what you're paying them for said penetration testing.

The problem is that Google's core business is still built-around using (and selling, though indirectly) people's private data.

1
lemmy.world

Hasn't this been around for a while? I've had the option on my phone since last year. And while Google isn't exactly trustworthy, it's better than some of the shadier free options out there.

It's fast and it's accessible for non-techy people. Certainly better than using an unsecured network with no protection at all.

26
lemmy.world

What I want to know is are there really people sitting in Starbucks all day with a laptop trying to view your Instagram traffic.

10
sh.itjust.works

They've had one for quite a while. My original Google pixel had the option to enable when on unknown wifi ie coffee shops and such. While it provides no value and even negative value for you guys here I can see how it'd be useful for places where you don't trust the network you are on. But that also means you have to trust Google 🤣

24

I would literally trust an untrustworthy public thing way more than Google. And I don't trust 'em at all

2
lemmy.ml

Anyone that actually puts their trust in this deserves whatever happens to them

22
socsareply
lemmy.ml

I used a Google VPN, and now my dog is addicted to heroin.

8
socsareply
lemmy.ml

I honestly don't know where he keeps getting the heroin

3
lemmy.world

Feel like I'll get flamed for saying it but I use this service and I think it's good. I don't see the privacy concern. If you look at the privacy policy they state that they essentially do not use your browsing activity for anything other than ensuring the vpn is working. They also open source their client application. Anyone can say they're evil and they lie or whatever but in my country and many others the statements they've made about how this works and the data they use mean something.

21
UID_Zeroreply
infosec.pub

I'm iffy about giving more days to Google, but I use their VPN when I'm on any kind of questionable WiFi. I'd rather give the data to Google than to whatever random place is getting it from my hotels or whatever.

I also have a VPN server setup at home, but generally routing everything through home is too slow (for now, I might be getting significantly increased upload speed soon).

13
djshadowreply
lemmy.ml

I think most people in this thread are missing the point of this service. This is 100% a valid option when traveling and needing to protect yourself while using public wifi. This exists to protect yourself from identity theft and fraud.

4

It's like any other VPN service. It's all a question of who you want to trust.

1

I agree, even if they are harvesting that data I'd honestly rather it was Google than a thousand little companies that barely anyone even knows exist and can get away with more illegal action.

0
kbin.social

If you use Chrome then you already do.

If you use Firefox and never went into the settings to change the default omnibar settings then you already do.

11
lemmy.world

The bar at the top of the browser that acts as both a place to enter addresses and enter searches. It's not strictly an address bar nor a search bar. It's both. It's all. It's omni.

6
Knusperreply
feddit.de

"Omnibar" is Chrome's naming, though. Firefox's component is technically called "Awesomebar", although most folks do just call it "address bar", "URL bar", "nav bar" etc..

3

I think the Firefox settings now call it the address bar when selecting if you want it to do both functions or have separate boxes. It may still be that internally.

Also I just looked it up and apparently I was wrong anyways and the Chrome internal docs call it the omnibox actually...

And the chromium developers blog calls it the address bar...

And so does The Keyword (blog.google)...

I think they've both given up on getting the public to use their special names now that it's just an expected feature of a browser.

2
lemmy.world

Will Google ask me to solve a captcha while connected to a Google VPN?

18

@archy

I already use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine. When I didn't get the results I was looking for, I would reach for Google. But with Google's incessant Captchas, now I've been conditioned to reach for something else.

@paraphrand

1

How about we start getting paid for all the information they steal.

17
exi
feddit.de

I'm super confused by the FUD spread in nearly every comment here.

Pretty much every argument boils down to "we don't trust google does what they say", which is funny because I'd like to challenge anyone to provide evidence that google actually sells any of your data. They sell advertising slots that they promise will find the right people, but your data never leaves google. No advertiser gets to see it.

This VPN service promises and has been independently audited to never log or analyze your traffic and even has built in provisions to anonymize your traffic within Google so they can't reconstruct it.

So apart from the questionable assumption that google is blatantly lying, what's the argument here? Apart from maybe missing some popular VPN Features like country selection.

Also this is for people that already pay for Google storage anyways, so I don't see the problem for the intended target audience, it's sticky an improvement in privacy for them and they get it for free. It sure as hell beats getting your traffic intercepted and ads injected into random http pages like some ISPs do.

13
lemmy.world

Bruh, I can go to cybersecurity school, study it for a lifetime, audit this service myself, find that it does anonymise and does everything right, and STILL refuse to use it, simply because this just isn't who you get a VPN service from.

You don't buy your meat from the town gravekeeper, atleast not as long as there are other butchers, and especially not if the meat comes cheap.

33
exireply
feddit.de

So your argument has nothing to do with the product itself and everything to do with "hurr Durr Google bad".

Which is fine, and a valid opinion, but has nothing to do with the product.

I'm annoyed because 90% of the comments here imply or outright state that google will use this data for ads or other means, which has no basis in reality.

-12
exireply
feddit.de

THIS IS A PAID SERVICE.

Dude, they don't only do ads. Google has a whole bunch of payed-for services that are never touched for ad-tracking. This is one of them. You are implying that Google Cloud would also use ad-tracking based on customer data, which is absurd.

Please stop spreading this FUD. Just because the free services are payed for by ads does not mean that everything they do is.

(edit: Paid, not Payed)

-8
lemmy.world

So question. If google puts the tracking in chrome like they are supposedly going to do. The vpn won't protect you (assuming you use chrome)... they don't need to snoop on it, they already have it from another source.

8
exireply
feddit.de

No VPN ever protects you from ad-tracking. Like literally none. That's not what they are for. VPNs protect you from someone intercepting your traffic on the way to the websites you want to visit. It protects you from malicious public wifi or a malicious ISP. It does not anonymize you in any meaningful way.

Addition just to explain: Google is tracking you on the website you visit, with the help of said website. So no matter whether you use a VPN or not, if you visit that website with or without a VPN, with all the fingerprinting that happens nowadays, they would probably just get a datapoint like "Oh, user X just moved from home internet to VPN" and that's it.

Like it literally does nearly nothing if you don't ALSO do 100 other important things to anonymize yourself. A regular user has nearly no chance to stay anonymous the moment they use a regular browser and a VPN would not help them at all.

1
exireply

No need to be sorry. English is not my first language. I appreciate the correction.

2

It has everything to do with it. If you had money and needed to, would you buy a Porsche from a dodgy backstreet garage that had so many red flags on the way in?

Trust is everything. If I don't trust you, why would I believe your marketing bumpf?

Why are you shilling for google in a privacy community, anyway?

7
lemmy.ml

You sound an awful lot like an abused spouse

"Oh sure, All those other times were bad, but she swore she wont hit me this time.. and she means it this time, honest!"

-1
exireply

Of all the replies, this is the first one to actually make a good point instead of random google-bad handwaving.

Thank you

2

Google is an ad company first, and everything else later. There are countless examples of them pushing tracking technologies that nobody wants - AMP, FLOC/Privacy sandbox, manifest v3 to kill adblockers. The list is just too long. At this point, any argument in favor of Google is just astroturfing.

18
80386SXreply
lemmy.ml

Apple provides exactly the same service(s) and now with their advertising division, ad slots to the higher bidder too.

But they are portrayed as Jesus while Google is Lucifer.

The default has become Google = bad. It's also fashionable to blame them for all evils . 🤷

I won't be using their VPN because I already paid someone else for a 3 year plan, not because Google is bad.

9

Anecdotally: i got Google VPN free w my Google one sub, used it to pirate some movies. still got a warning from Comcast (for one of the star wars movies, iirc).

Went right back to Mullvlad. Speeds were better anyway.

3

Our local druglord is offering drug protection for kids at schools! Yey! And at $5 bucks, their service is way cheaper than the war on drugs that the cops keep peddling!

Before I can get the kids to their first drug training, I gotta get the truck fixed, and what better way to do that than Joe? Joe may be the drunkest one eyed blind rheumatic paraplegic mute there is, but he's kept all our cars running pretty good since that one time we accidentally ran him over. The car was making a noise and then it was just fine. Since then we go to Joe's for regular maintenance. Well, it's the alley behind Joe's actually. It might not last, Joe seems to be getting slower and slower and much less talkative. Like the first time we ran him over, he was just blasting his mouth off. Last time he fixed my truck he wasn't moving around as much and there were more flies around him than usual. Anyway, Joe is the way!

And don't let Google trick you. They just want more of your data.

13

It's been around for a bit now. It's free for anyone who pays them for storage. I pay them... But I'll never use that shit. I have zero trust for Google.

12

What do you store with them that isn't private enough to worry about but vital enough to pay for?

3

Yeah, I’m going trust my VPN service, which I would probably use for torrenting if I were to get it, with the company that was removing torrenting sites from its users own private bookmark lists. That can’t possibly end badly for me.

10
kbin.social

Lately it seems that all too much of my life is spent alternately laughing at things that are so ludicrous that only a blithering moron would fall for them and dejectedly remembering that the world is stuffed to the brim with blithering morons.

10

I feel this all the time. Like 3 of every 4 headlines I read are so absurd they can't be real, except they are real. We're truly living a comedy.

11
lemmy.world
  1. Get cheap VPS.
  2. Install Wireguard as server
  3. Configure
  4. Forward the necessary ports on said VPS
  5. Connect to VPS
  6. Profit
10
Knasenreply
lemmy.world

Virtual Private Server, a virtual machine with a hosting provider

4
Kitreply
lemmy.blahaj.zone

What provider do you recommend? I've been looking for a VPS for playing around with some stuff that I can't run on my OSX server.

1

Somebody mentioned Vultr. I'll add Linode, Digital Ocean as the bigger players. Obviously, there's the Cloud providers like AWS, Azure and GCP.

If you're on a budget/looking for the best value, look at Contabo, Hetzner (bit of a pain now, their processes and uptime) and Racknerd special deals on Lowendbox (can't beat this, but remember that you get what you pay for).

1
tabularasareply
lemmy.world

Explain more, please. Isn't your name still attached to the VPS 's IP address because of the account you have to open?

3
lemmy.world

Ah, you want to anonymise your traffic using a VPN?

You should be looking at Mullvad - they accept payments over Monero.

I'm just trying to keep the likes of Google, Microsoft and Facebook from knowing my real IP. If I had something that required absolute confidentiality, I'd be using TOR over bridges.

This is an excellent chain of posts from absolute gods in the digital privacy game: The paranoid schizophrenic's guide to opsec - an extremely entertaining read if you have the patience to follow their techniques.

Cheers

2
lemmy.world

They've had one for years. If you use one of their phones or have their MVNO service you have had access to it. Might have even been turned on by default. Just a heads up.

9

Google's unbelievably aggressive BS is the just about the only reason I run a VPN. Despite taking extraordinary steps to block them, Google still manages to regularly shove their BS into my life.

Google removed "Don't Be Evil" from their mission statement for a reason.

9

Those both sound like you things

— Brian Griffin said upon learning Quagmire has a win/win relationship with his dentist where he 1) buys nitrous oxide from him and 2) bangs his wife

9
lemmy.world

Chrome now won't open an incognito window unless you're signed into a regular window.

If you try, it just opens a regular window and tells you to sign in.

8
lemmy.world

“Trust us. It’s just necessary so we can make sure we’re not tracking you.”

9
Mane25reply
feddit.uk

As someone who's not used Chrome for a while, what does it mean to be "signed into a regular widow"? Does it mean signed in to a Google account with cookies that can be seen by a regular browser tab, or is there some login process to the actual browser itself these days?

3
lemmy.world

Yeah, I got signed out when the new tracking updates went live, figured I'd just use incognito.

But I couldn't even open an incognito window, it kept bringing up a normal one and saying I had to sign in to use chrome.

So I downloaded Firefox.

3
Mane25reply
feddit.uk

Sign in to what though? That's what I still don't understand, I've never used a browser that had a mandatory account (except maybe AOL in the 90s but that wasn't really a browser)..

But of course, downloading Firefox is definitely the right choice. :)

4
ares35reply
kbin.social

they are claiming that you have to be signed into chrome, the browser, in order to open an incognito window.

yea, it sounds a little crazy. i don't use chrome, so i can't confirm that's the case. i haven't run into any articles claiming this either, just this post and one other elsewhere awhile back that does.

2

OK then this is my culture shock because I've never "signed in" to a browser in my life. All I want to know is what are people signing in to?

3

Are you talking about the "Make Chrome your own" page that walks you through a few customization options before asking if you want to sign in? You can just select "No thanks" and you're not signed in. Incognito windows work just fine.

Or are you talking about the "Set up your new Chrome profile" screen that pops up when you make a new profile? It shows two options: Sign in [to Google] and "Continue without an account". "Continue without an account" just has you name the new profile to distinguish it from any others you may have and then lets you start using it. Incognito windows work just fine.

This is Chrome on the desktop by the way.

3
lemm.ee

If someone wants to use a VPN then they clearly care about privacy, which means they definitely know about Google's business practices. In conclusion, nobody is gonna be stupid enough to use this.

4

VPNs can be a tool for privacy but 99% of the time someone is tricked into thinking it's antivirus by a nordvpn ad

3

VPN is rarely used as a privacy tool first, but rather a proxy to fool websites and access blocked resources.

1

Just like Gmail and Docs and Keep and Search. Nobody puts any moderately private data in those.

0
lemmy.world

I think this is a feature of Google One subscription. Is it free for non-subscribers?

3
paraphrandreply
lemmy.world

It was recently added to Google One. I don’t think it’s free. Others in the thread have said that it was also offered on some of Google’s Phones in the past.

3

it's been a part of Google one 2tb for years, they recently added it to the lower plans. it's free from Pixel 7/7a/probably Fold too.

5

Not really free, it’s bundled with paid Google one. Not saying it’s good, just not even free

10

how long until virtually all websites block you unless you're using the Google VPN?

2

Next month they will start trying to convince you that mail and YouTube are just not safe without their „vpn“. Maybe they will make it an integral part of Android.

And then, the strange little Google human thinks while masturbating violently under his desk, and then, yes then, they will have all the traffic, all of it. They will own the Internet and the desk will be very sticky.

1

Yes, Google’s VPN is intriguing, but I don’t want to give them any more personal information. For work-related purposes, I’ve been using Namecheap fast vpn, and to be honest, it’s been inconsistent. In comparison to larger brands, the server selection seems constrained, but the price is fair and setup was fairly simple. During video calls, there were also a few annoying speed drops. It satisfies basic privacy requirements, but it’s not particularly noteworthy.

1

Wasn't FastVPN caught holding user logs and selling personal data to advertisement agencies?

2