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VPN by Google One

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Re: VPN by Google One

#101

Post by mark_l_watson »

I am not surprised by the level of criticism in the comments here.

However, paid Google services may be cancelled but they have terms of service.

For example, Google Workplaces (used to be called GSuite) states that they use none of your data for advertising and make privacy claims. I am a relatively new customer and I believe it. On the other hand, there are good alternatives like ProtonMail and FastMail for people who don’t trust Google.

I have been paying for both ProtonMail and FastMail for quite a while, but I find my personal workflow better with Google Workplaces: things like automatic email and calendar integration and also Cloud Search that lets me search every digital artifact in my life from one place.

What finally convinced me was that both my former employer CapitalOne and also my current employer Olive AI trust Google Workplaces, so why shouldn’t I.

Re: VPN by Google One

#102

Post by cm2187 »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #101

I am not surprised by the level of criticism in the comments here. However, paid Google services may be cancelled but they have terms of service. For example, Google Workplaces (used to be called GSuite) states that they use none of your data for advertising and make privacy claims. I am a relatively new customer and I believe it. On the other hand, there are good alternatives like ProtonMail and FastMail for people…

So the solution is for consumers to read a 60 pages legal document written in font 6 for each service they subscribe to, and which may change on short (or no) notice?

Of course people make their decisions based on trust.

Re: VPN by Google One

#103

Post by mark_l_watson »

cm2187 wrote: post #102
mark_l_watson wrote: post #101

I am not surprised by the level of criticism in the comments here. However, paid Google services may be cancelled but they have terms of service. For example, Google Workplaces (used to be called GSuite) states that they use none of your data for advertising and make privacy claims. I am a relatively new customer and I believe it. On the other hand, there are good alternatives like ProtonMail and FastMail for people…

So the solution is for consumers to read a 60 pages legal document written in font 6 for each service they subscribe to, and which may change on short (or no) notice? Of course people make their decisions based on trust.

Well, you have great alternatives. ProtonMail is rolling out secure storage, they already have VPN service that I am currently using, and some calendar support. FastMail is also a very good all around service.

Plenty of room for people to make their own choices.

Re: VPN by Google One

#104

Post by lowdose »

sufehmi wrote: post #99
jeffbee wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Privacy enthusiasts often seem blind to this risk. I think it's quite likely that virtually all of these VPN providers are run by either state agencies or organized criminals. As the person who personally ran almost all Tor exits for a brief period in the early 2000's, I am here to tell you that if you cannot definitely identify the operator of your VPN or proxy service, then you probably should not use it.

THIS. I can not believe how many people just blindly recommend VPN like some silver bullet. Using untrustworthy VPN as a privacy solution is like jumping from the fire into the pavement 20 stories below.

That differs between people, I personally would not mind the NSA running ExpressVPN as a covert outlet because than I at least know for certain my is kept secret by a secure state operator that has incentives aligned with my personal interests.

Any other operator runs the risk of becoming high jacked by other state operators. If you can hack Sony, break DNC email servers, hospitals for records, manipulate windows server functionality or create Stuxnet than a VPN is a cake walk.

A VPN was until this offering from Google a trolley problem. I gladly pay for Google products because they work for me. I even upload my porn to Google Photos because of the superiority of their streaming capabilities coming from the youtube backend.

Re: VPN by Google One

#106

Post by Tanath »

NiceWayToDoIT wrote: post #20

What is next VPN by NSA ? :) "Don't worry we already know everything about you, it is easier this way" :)

> What does the 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

Re: VPN by Google One

#107

Post by Tanath »

ucha wrote: post #75

I understand why no one would want to trust Google and after Snowden's revelations, I don't see why anyone should. But when it comes to the largest VPNs such as ExpressVPN or Nord VPN, it is impossible to tell who is truly behind them. You cannot put a name on physical person in charge which is very worrying. And since the NSA is known to use front companies to spy on people [1], why couldn't they be behind all these…

Snowden's revelation that the NSA was in Google's network had their engineers pissed, and they immediately changed their architecture to make it more secure, encrypting internal connections. That doesn't make me want to use them less. And Snowden was compromised by Russia even before he went there.

Re: VPN by Google One

#110

Post by dzhiurgis »

ucha wrote: post #75

I understand why no one would want to trust Google and after Snowden's revelations, I don't see why anyone should. But when it comes to the largest VPNs such as ExpressVPN or Nord VPN, it is impossible to tell who is truly behind them. You cannot put a name on physical person in charge which is very worrying. And since the NSA is known to use front companies to spy on people [1], why couldn't they be behind all these…

NordVPN is incorporated in Caymans or smth like that. Partly to protect itself from all the legal stuff. In reality it's not huge secret it's real name is Tesonet from Vilnius, Lithuania (which has solid legal system and collaborates with FBI, CIA, etc).
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