Is Google VPN trustable?

Questions
1

The Google Pixel series comes with a free Google VPN. Is this trustworthy? Would you use it?

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2

It depends on your threat model, use case(s) and workflow.

Never.

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3

Google’s VPN is interesting because it uses blind signatures to separate your traffic from your account. The only other VPN I’ve seen that does that is Apple’s Private Relay. Google’s VPN doesn’t have the same two-hop architecture as Private Relay so it’s not quite as good, but you actually don’t have to trust Google as much as most other VPN providers.

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4

Vaguely related prior art from research:

  1. SnowHaze VPN ~2020 (techincal doc)
  2. Brave VPN ~2020 (no technical doc?)
  3. Google VPN ~2021 (technical doc)
  4. Apple iCloud+ Private Relay ~2021 (technical PDF!)
  5. Microsoft Edge Secure Network ~2023 (technical doc)
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5

At this point, from all that we know about Google, it is safe and fair to simply discount anything from Google from a privacy POV.

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8

It’s terrific for specific edge cases like “America and your country hate each other”.

America doesn’t give a shit about your Google data, and your country’s data requests get ignored.

I am not your lawyer

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10

^^ Like people have said, considering how Google is (most probably the) NSA /Mossad then, no you can’t trust it for anything, ofc.

Being anon is super-hard -these days- anyway, your NIC (network card) has a MAC address which must be spoofed, and other hw parameters which can be read /used as identifiers. You’d have to hop around a lot, and across machines; even “Mullvad VPN” or, any single one thing can always be compromised (and for a number of different reasons); aanyway :slight_smile:

P.S. I suppose that I might use a VPN to ssh to a VPS machine and tor from there to whatever it is, something like that (& ofc., you need a dedicated firewall on your end, and not-your-WiFi either, right)

EDIT: Oh, yea, and from Android there are nice approaches, such as: 1) InviZible Pro and 2) the Rethink DNS + Firewall app.

EDIT: https://itsignacioportal.github.io/firewall-and-vpn-without-root-on-android-2026/

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11

Might be interesting for people who often use insecure public wifi and are not willing to buy a VPN.

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12

I would keep this in mind: When Facebook Used VPN to Secretly Spy on Snapchat, YouTube, and Rival Apps .

Even if what @fria mentioned works well enough to not tie it to your account, google surely is going to use this data somehow. Don’t give them more power/data.

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I would keep this in mind: When Facebook Used VPN to Secretly Spy on Snapchat, YouTube, and Rival Apps .

Are you actually comparing Google to Meta?
Yes, while I agree that Google is not your friend the evilness coming from Meta is way higher than from Google.
Meta hacked multiple times their own users.

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14

The fact that people are even asking about the privacy protection legitimacy from a Google product (of all things) in 2026 just goes to show how oblivious people.

I personally can’t compute the rationale with which someone may think - sure, I think using a VPN from Google is a good idea or anything along these lines.

Perhaps I am too privileged enough to be educated in this matter in the privacy space.

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15

You know that a Pixel smartphone counts as a Google product, right?
I wouldn’t 100% agree with it, but I get your point.

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16

Let me correct myself.

A software product from Google. Geez.. I thought it was clear. The pedantry feels unwarranted especially given this thread.

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17

Even with GOS if you buy a Pixel you still have some kind of software from Google (low level firmware and so on).

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18

Seeing that we are speaking about the privacy protections on this thread here, what you’re saying would not even qualify as a tertiary concern in the slightest seeing that GOS is and can be used fully without anything Google related on it should one so chooses to.

The logic with with you’re trying to counter me with what I said and in the context with how I meant it does not apply to my comment and in my view is coming off as an overly obtuse comment/view from you (which is surprising as I’ve seen you be active here and on Techlore for a while now and thought you knew better).

Sorry. That’s how it reads to me.

But sure… you can feel right in the fact that GOS is from AOSP which is from Google which you can also qualify as a Google product. Is that the right way to look at it when speaking of GOS? There is a clear answer in my head for this question but everyone is entitled to deduce it however they like.

These are just my honest views expressed as clearly as I can. Please only infer from it to the extent of what I wrote and nothing more (because I don’t mean anything more than what I said).

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19

Let us be honest, no one would recommend Pixels from a privacy point of view if you wasn’t able to unlock and replace the stock OS.

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20

Absolutely not because I don’t trust Google.

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21

I’m not talking about ASOP rather than low-level code like verified boot or other code on this level, which as far as I understand it is from Google and GOS doesn’t replace it.

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22

Fascinating to see you doubling down.

I’m done.

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23

If my statement is false, say it.

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