How VPN by Google protects your online activity
VPN by Google increases your protection from third-party monitoring. It is available on all phones with Google Fi service. VPN by Google increases your data usage. With VPN by Google, you can:
- Stream, browse, and download on an automatically encrypted, private connection.
- Shield against hackers on unsecure networks like public Wi-Fi.
- Prevent websites from using your IP address to find your location.
VPNs use mobile data for automatic encryption and network optimizations. To make sure that you don’t lose connectivity when your Wi-Fi connection is unusable, the VPN moves to a cell network. If you're in the middle of a download, it might continue to download over mobile data. To go back to Wi-Fi, move closer to your router or access point or pick a different network.
When you use a Wi-Fi hotspot, the device that receives the hotspot doesn’t use the VPN unless you separately use a VPN on that device.
Google Fi doesn’t tie your online activity to who you are.
Your VPN session is established with a one-time token that’s not linked to your Google Account or your phone number. When you turn on the VPN, Google Fi confirms with one of our servers that you’re a valid user.
The server sends back a one-time token, which has no information about you. The server just verifies if you can use the VPN. With this token, the VPN establishes a connection with our VPN server. Our VPN servers make sure that the token is valid, which allows you to use the VPN.
Because the server we use to make sure that you’re a valid user is separate from our VPN servers, our VPN servers only know if you can use the VPN. Our VPN servers can’t tell who you are.
Your online traffic travels through a strongly encrypted tunnel
Your online activity is encrypted between your phone and our VPN servers. Encryption keeps your data safe in transit, which means third parties and hackers can't see your data before your traffic reaches our VPN servers.
Your real IP address is hidden
Once your traffic reaches our VPN servers, we replace your real IP address with a Google server IP address that is not connected or linked to your Google account. This changes your IP-based location to that of the Google server instead of your real location. This prevents your IP address from being used to track your location when you go to websites. Google Fi retains traffic metadata, like connection speed, without your IP address for 14 days, but Google Fi doesn’t retain your online activity.
Tip: Your browser may have cookies that could be used to personalize your website experience. To prevent cookie-based tracking, you can clear your cookies.
Google Fi prevents abuse while you maintain your privacy
Google Fi may take actions to prevent abuse over the VPN, but we do so in a way that still maintains your privacy. Because we don’t tie your Google Account to your VPN connection, we can’t tie this traffic back to who you are.
With or without a VPN, Google Fi doesn’t sell your personal information to anyone.
How VPN by Google handles your data
Google Fi collects certain information to provide the VPN service. Some of this functionality uses Google Play services.
- Crash logs and other performance data are collected for analytics and troubleshooting purposes.
- Personal and device identifiers, such as user IDs and device IDs or other identifiers, are collected for app functionality and analytics purposes.
Data is automatically encrypted in transit.
You can request deletion of collected data from My Account.
These types of apps and connections are always exempt from the VPN:
- Connection to your smart home devices and other traffic over your local network.
- Traffic over networks that aren't Wi-Fi or cell networks.
- Connections to your tethered devices.
- Actions taken on your phone while in Airplane mode.
- Some Google services and preinstalled apps with system privileges that can bypass VPNs, such as Android or Apple device notification.
- Secondary profiles on Android devices. The VPN is only active for your primary profile.
- VPN by Google doesn’t support custom DNS. You can’t use external or local DNS lookups.