Normally, we would compare Google One VPN with each provider individually, but our verdict for all three is the same. There are ways to add protections for these sorts of vulnerabilities, but, according to the 2021 report, Google considered the risk to be within acceptable parameters. This isn’t a concern unique to Google, of course, but it’s worth noting nonetheless. Namely, the potential exists for the company to effectively track VPN users through various means, including associating a particular VPN tunnel with a Google identity, effectively deanonymizing user traffic through a VPN. Its independent security audit in 2021 and the follow-up in 2022, conducted by cybersecurity consultants NCC Group Security Services, revealed some concerns about the product as well. states over user location tracking or the myriad ways it monetizes user data. As news coverage has shown, the company has had many indiscretions with user privacy, such as the $392 million settlement with 40 U.S. However, the company’s reputation does it no favors in the trust department. Google One VPN has some basic security/privacy measures we expect from a VPN, namely a no-logs policy and multifactor authentication (MFA). Thanks to the VPN product they put out being so disappointing, it’s even easier to make that call than it would be otherwise. We’ll go into more detail below (see our section on security and privacy), but the short version is that Google’s long history with mishandling and monetizing user data makes it extremely hard for us to trust the company with our Internet traffic under any circumstances. When you use a VPN, you are effectively saying, “I trust this VPN provider to handle my data and Internet traffic better than my ISP.” This is an area where Google fails for us. We’ve already harped enough on the absence of critical features, but another issue is that it’s owned by Google. There’s plenty not to like about Google One VPN, unfortunately. A dedicated VPN, such as Mullvad, Proton VPN or, will be a much better option every single time. It would be very easy to use the data storage or the extra Google Photos features and never even touch the VPN, and if you do have a Google One subscription, that is what we recommend. The additional features for Google One are appealing, but they don’t incentivize users to use Google One VPN. The price tag is nice but held back by the dearth of basic VPN functionality. Unfortunately, these pros aren’t doing much to outweigh the cons. Google One includes several features outside the VPN, such as added functionality to the Google Photos app, extra cloud data storage of up to 5TB and dark web monitoring. The main things Google One VPN has going for it are that it’s relatively cheap at a base price of $1.99 per month and that it comes as part of the larger Google One package. The nicest thing we can say about it is that it turns on. We consider these features to be a basic part of any quality VPN service.Īpart from missing essential features, however, Google One VPN doesn’t do anything unique or particularly interesting. The absence of split tunneling and a kill switch on non-Android operating systems is similarly noticeable. The inability to choose where your IP address is coming from is a glaring hole in the overall product. As a VPN service, removed from the context of the rest of the Google One subscription, Google One VPN is set apart by what it lacks more than what it contains.
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