Google Chrome to soon get a new ‘IP protection’ feature: Here’s what it does

Google will soon start testing a new ‘IP protection’ feature for Chrome users, offering them greater control over their privacy. The tech giant the upcoming feature prevents websites from tracking users by hiding their IP address using proxy servers owned by Google.

To give you a quick recap, IP address is a unique numerical identifier that can be used to track a user’s geographical location and is used by advertisers to track a user’s browsing habits, see which websites they visit and provide personalized ads.

According to Google, the IP protection feature will be rolled out in multiple stages, with Phase 0 redirecting domains owned by Google (like Gmail) to a single proxy server. The company says the first phase will allow them to test its infrastructure and only a handful of users residing in the US will be enrolled.

Google also said that the upcoming IP protection feature will be available for users who have logged in to Chrome. To prevent misuse the tech giant will be implementing an authentication server that will set a quota for every user.

In the following phases, Google will start using a 2-hop proxy system, which essentially redirects a website’s request to a Google server that will again be redirected to an external CDN like Cloudflare.

While the IP protection feature might enhance user privacy, the tech giant has clarified that it is not a foolproof system. If a hacker is able to gain access to Google’s proxy server, they will be able to analyse all traffic passing through the network and even redirect users to malicious websites.

Since most of Google’s revenue comes from tracking users across the internet and offering them personalized ads, it will be interesting to see how the company strikes a balance between user privacy and revenue generation.

cmnybo,

That will just allow google to track every website you visit.

bus_factor,

Both. It will prevent other sites from seeing some of your data, while giving Google more of your data. Of course Google wants to do this, it gives them a competitive edge. Smells like brewing lawsuits, though.

radix,
@radix@lemmy.world avatar

Using one dominant position (Chrome market share) to extend into another (data brokerage) is textbook Monopoly 101.

bus_factor,

Yeah, we saw Microsoft do that with Windows and Internet Explorer back in the day.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Smells like brewing lawsuits, though.

This is America. No one cares about your privacy and corporations own the government.

obinice,
@obinice@lemmy.world avatar

Damn, and here I thought I lived in the United Kingdom.

I guess this is America? Who knew!

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

EVERYWHERE IS AMERICA

angrystego,

We’re all living in Amerika, Amerika ist wunderbar!

bus_factor,

Google also operates in the EU. They’ll probably get a slap on the wrist in the end, but first there will be a widely publicized lawsuit.

BearOfaTime,

I hate to admit how accurate this is

Send_me_nude_girls,

Second pull the ladder move of Google in a short succession.

techdirt.com/…/google-decides-to-pull-up-the-ladd…

deegeese,

Google’s idea of privacy is to capture all your activity through Google’s VPN so nobody but Google’s advertisers can see it.

zingo, (edited )

Looks like a great business plan to me.

Edit: Firefox is a great option for more privacy.

Librewolf is a hardened fork of Firefox, but not for everyone. Although I am very happy with it personally.

Siddhartha-Aurelius,

Mullvad also has a browser.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Which is great except that it constantly breaks websites.

RootBeerGuy,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Which should tell you something.

helenslunch,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Which is…?

RootBeerGuy,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

That all sites constantly try to harvest your data as much as they can, so much that when you use a browser that inactivates all or most of those features it will render those sites unusable.

Of course there are also sites that just break for another reason, but that should be a minority. My opinion, no source, in case you ask.

Siddhartha-Aurelius,

Yeah, that’s going to happen. The features that make website useful are the same features used to track everything. It’s a sliding scale from usability to privacy. The further you go in one direction the less you get from the other.

Lucidlethargy,

They won’t hide it from their servers. Do not use chrome. Use Firefox and a vpn.

Treczoks,

So instead of the websites tracking me, it would just be google that does so. With much more control and detail than ever. And then google will sell that information to those websites for even mroe profit!

RandomVideos,

So instead of giving random websites your general location, you give google everything you do on the web?

JohnEdwa,

Unless you take considerable steps to prevent it by avoiding and blocking anything made by google, you basically already do.

And this is a Chrome feature we are talking about. Someone who cares about privacy from Google wouldn’t be using it in the first place.

Blackmist,

Well that would be great if Google wasn’t the main culprit trying to track me.

Is that really the best business plan they have now? Stop everyone else tracking you so their own data is worth more?

BearOfaTime,

Credit where credit is due - they’ve been hypocrites since at least the day the posited “Don’t be evil”.

Like any decent person needs to say that.

JohnEdwa,

That was their company motto, it’s supposed to be a silly reminder/moral goal to follow in your code of conduct. But back in 2000 when they started using it, it was also kinda genuine, meant as a stab at Microsoft and other such companies exploiting users.

In 2015 Alphabet decided that “Don’t be evil” was too restricting and changed it to “Do the right thing”. Even that has since been removed.

Fades,

fuck chrome

aeternum,

FUCK GOOGLE moar liek it.

BearOfaTime,

Por que no los dos?

A_Random_Idiot,

Ah yes, filter all my internet browsing through google servers for analysis, data harvesting and exploitation “privacy”

Then again, anyone actually caring about privacy probably wouldnt be using chrome to begin with.

CrayonRosary,

Don’t worry. They’ll “strike a balance”

Knusper,

Guess, AMP didn’t give them enough control over servers, now they also want to capture the clients.

Zealousideal_Fox900,

THE FUCKING IRONY

0oWow,

So this is Google’s version of Microsoft tracking. Microsoft does it with Windows and Edge, Google does it with proxies. Sad.

Ghostalmedia,
@Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

I would wager that this is probably more of a response to iOS and Apple’s encrypted proxy “Private Relay” feature.

Google doesn’t care about Edge. If you look at the browser stats, mobile Safari is their major competitor. Especially in the states.

sir_reginald, (edited )
@sir_reginald@lemmy.world avatar

Since most of Google’s revenue comes from tracking users across the internet and offering them personalized ads, it will be interesting to see how the company strikes a balance between user privacy and revenue generation.

Isn’t it obvious? Google own’s the proxies. And judging by the look of this, they are going to act as a a Man In The Middle for HTTPS, so they will be actually able to see everyone’s plain text connections. This is not a privacy feature, but a privacy nightmare. Like everything else on Chrome, tbh.

Edit: I don’t know if they will be breaking HTTPS or no, since I didn’t see the details of how this works. But even if they don’t see your plain text traffic, they are logging your every request, which is scary.

fubo,

You can’t MITM HTTPS with a VPN unless the browser accepts an insecure certificate. And that can’t be done without being detected; and the security community would raise seven shades of hell.

Google has actually helped build the infrastructure that (in a public, provable way that Google can’t subvert) makes it impossible to get away with MITM in this manner. It’s called Certificate Transparency.

Put another way: Google wants other big companies and governments to use Chrome and Android. If Google started MITMing traffic like you suggest, no corporation or government would ever touch their products again. So they’ve built infra that lets them prove they don’t.

They could use this to get more accurate figures about the popularity of different sites or services by IP and port. But they don’t need to; they have search.

_s10e,

You can’t MITM HTTPS with a VPN unless the browser accepts an insecure certificate.

Yes, but the browser is Chrome and this is a feature built into Chrome.

fubo,

Now try reading the rest.

_s10e,

I tend to agree with the trust argument. Google wants people to rely on Web technology and Google products and allowing MITM - or failing to prevent - goes against Google’s interest.

I don’t buy the technical argument at all. Google could terminate the TLS connection at the proxy and communicate with the browser on a proprietary encrypted channel. Chrome could easily show a green padlock item and certificate details as seen by the proxy. The whole thing could be open source and transparent. A minority of users will disable the feature; many will accept it. Corporates can be bought by allowing to opt out for ‘sensitive’ servers.

fubo,

They could just rewrite Chrome to send all your passwords in clear text to Mountain View too … but not without security people noticing. That’s my point. The behavior of browsers is not secret.

knobbysideup,

So a proxy of their own so Google can watch everything you do themselves? GTFO.

Haywire,

I’m using Google’s VPN now. They promised they won’t look. Honestly I think a lot.more is leaked via the GBoard keyboard, but what do I know.

DarkThoughts,

Google will soon start testing a new ‘IP protection’ feature for Chrome users, offering them greater control over their privacy. The tech giant the upcoming feature prevents websites from tracking users by hiding their IP address using proxy servers owned by Google.

Jesus fucking Christ...
I wonder how much Indianexpress gets paid for this bullshit advertisement.

macallik,

This was actually the least-biased coverage of the day:
https://www.techmeme.com/231023/p18#a231023p18

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