Page 4 - November_Newsletter_2020

A Google VPN is a thinly disguised attempt to keep control over user data. By launching Google
VPN, bundling it with Google One, and potentially preloading it on every Android device in the
future, Google is essentially saying, “Since third-party VPNs prevent us from spying on internet
users, we’re going to drive unsuspecting users to Google VPN so we can keep control of their
data.” By leveraging its control over the Android platform and bundling Google VPN with other
services, Google is leveraging its market dominance to the detriment of internet users, and engag-

ing in the exact sort of behaviour which is the subject of antitrust investigations in both the
US and EU.

Google’s brazen claim that its VPN will be good for privacy is akin to claiming a Facebook VPN
or NSA VPN would be good for privacy. It is imperative that we do not allow Google to rede-

fine privacy as ‘privacy between you and Google. ’This only serves their abusive business model,
which profits off surveillance and enables mass manipulation. If we let Google define privacy,
everyone loses.

The risks of using a VPN by Google

While no VPN is a perfect privacy solution, there are specific risks to using Google’s VPN in
particular.

• Google’s new VPN will increase its ability to collect data on you. Any time you sign in
to Google Chrome, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Maps, or Google Drive, Google al-

ready starts tracking you. Any time you sign in to an app that is part of Google’s AdMob
platform, it will be able to monitor your activity, and use this to help third parties gain in-
sights to better target you. If that isn’t enough, by using Google’s VPN, you give Google
direct access to ALL of your online browsing activity.

• Google is based in the United States, meaning your data is vulnerable to US govern-
ment surveillance. Google’s VPN is subject to the secretive FISA court and warrantless
national security letters. Google is already a tool of surveillance for national governments;
giving Google technical access to all your internet activity is a gift to the NSA and other
spy agencies around the world. Even if its VPN does not keep user logs now, the US gov-
ernment could compel Google to begin collecting logs in the future.

• With VPN technology, trust is paramount. Yet Google has done nothing to earn your
trust. From monitoring users in incognito mode to tracking your location even if you tell it
not to, Google has demonstrated repeatedly that it puts profit ahead of user privacy.

The bottom line is that when you connect to a VPN, you are shifting trust from your internet ser-
vice provider to your VPN provider. If you use Google’s VPN, you are placing your trust in a
company whose business model is surveillance.