Google is probably the last company I would pay for a VPN from
Facebook VPN
Touché
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X
Nestlé VPN
Fuck Nestlé
Stealing all my streams
It’s bundled with Google One, so if you pay for more Google Drive storage you get it for free. tbf it’s a shit VPN that doesn’t even let you choose your country. I could see it used when on public wifi, but other than that I don’t see the point.
NSA VPN
If you really just are worried about China or Russia spying on you and definitely don’t want them to see what you write then that’d be a good option.
Russian, Chinese or Iranian dissidents might be happy to use one hah.
The NASA VPN, on the other hand
It’s already been added to the Google Graveyard.
Honestly every single Google product should be added to it with a “TBD” or “Coming Soon” on the death date.
If you’re using Google as your primary anything, sorry but youre going to get screwed over.
Never. Trust. Google.
But. But. But it says “do no evil,” right on the box! ಠ_ಠ
They’ve updated that box in about 2010 to remove that phrase.
And as it turns out, Google is pretty evil.
Kinda makes one not want to become dependant on google products.
For sure. I no longer buy into new Google products because they’re going to die. It also makes it hard to recommend anything Google. They’re literally killing their ability to expand by constantly doing this.
Makes me think of when they brought out Stadia… Friend of mine was all into it, and didn’t understand why I just shrugged and didn’t bother with it.
I think he learned a valuable lesson there… Oh well, at least they refunded people’s money
Free controllers
And all 3 of them are great for the Steam Deck.
The only plus in this situation is that switching VPNs is far easier than other services since it’s just a pipe you’re swapping out.
Still annoying though, since Google VPN was nice if you were already paying for Google One. Now people will have to pay extra for something else.
Vpn’s aren’t that expensive, the one I use is $55 for 2 years.
3 years (and more since some of my friends used my link to sign up) of NordVPN for 78 dollars.
Yeah, but that’s still an extra expense. Most people using Google VPN were using it because they were already paying for Google One.
It’s $2 a month… I think you’ll be fine.
Which is that?
Surfshark, I don’t know much about VPN’s but I’ve been told they are pretty secure and don’t share your info. I mainly use VPN’s to pirate shows and movies and for that it’s worked well, havnt gotten any letters from my ISP.
I’m not endorsing them just to be clear as I am not knowledgeable enough to know if it’s good or not but it was recommended by someone I trust with that stuff like 3 years ago.
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Me, deeply cynical: “Google is just using their VPN to spy on you. They’ve got an entire department dedicated to checking what websites you visit while using the VPN and building a profile on each individual, which they will turn over to the authorities the moment society collapses into a state of anarchy and military law must be imposed.”
Google CEO: “Shut down the secret VPN counterintelligence program that tracks all the future domestic terrorists in the event of a widespread domestic insurgency. Its not making us enough money.”
What’s crazy is in this time line that sounds plausible.
Pretty reasonable
I am part of people… I hate google, Microsoft, Apple. So you’re right. We need a new hero.
The young upstart Microsoft fatally wounded the International Business Machines behemoth and brought us an OS for the common man. Something simplified that could provide a GUI and run on just about any hardware a normal person could afford. And thus everyone lived happily ever after.
The scrappy competitor stepped in with better design and a great deal of care about the customer experience to knock the dominant OS bully off… Whoops, the scrappy competitor stepped on his own dick… And again, and again… And then the scrappy competitor had to be bailed out by the OS bully. And thus everyone lived not un-happily ever after.
Until, the people’s hero entered the ring with their open phone OS, a replacement for the Netscape browser but this time with real money backing it, and a moto of righteousness, “Don’t be evil”. Once in the ring they began kicking all the Goliaths in their dicks… Cellular teleco, oppressive OS makers, even home Internet providers. There was no monopoly whose reproductive organs were safe from the swift boots of our savior Google. And thus everyone lived happily ever after.
You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.The young upstart Microsoft fatally wounded the International Business Machines behemoth and brought us an OS for the common man.
Everyone knows that The OS For The Common Man was Apple, because the Common Man is Bad At IT.
The scrappy competitor had the superior OS, but they never delivered. They insisted on running their OS on their proprietary hardware. They couldn’t stop stepping on their own dicks right up until they needed Microsoft to bail them out. Windows was not the OS we needed, but was the OS we deserved.
I feel like it would be weird to if you got a vpn for the purpose of downloading isos or making it harder to track you. It wasn’t always available to iOS users either ( I have an iPhone so that’s why I’m mentioning it) , so you already neutered those two bases. It seemed like a niche offering to begin with
So those of us that pay for google one yearly will get a partial refund?.. right?
They didn’t refund nest thermostat users when they verified those devices.
Yeah I can see why people weren’t using it lol. Google is entirely the person they’re trying to hide from.
Yeah voluntarily using a VPN from Google (the largest tracking and Adtech company), is like voluntarily seeking out Mob “protection”
Reasonable when the alternative is literally getting mugged on the daily?
Considering that in this analogy you’d be asking the mugger to be your protector it is still unreasonable.
Particularly considering there are plenty of reputable and privacy respecting vpn providers
Oh, I’m with you. I don’t think anyone using Google VPN was using it because it protected their privacy on the Internet generally. At least I hope not.
I would argue that you could negotiate with muggers much easier than with mobsters.
I’m usually interested in a VPN for privacy, using a VPN provided by Google feels like I’d have been less privacy.
It’s an easy way to bypass dumb states anti porn laws for those that already pay for extra space.
There are anti-porn laws?
Sort of. Texas and others instituted laws where websites have to age verify anyone looking at porn. So a bunch of websites just geofenced off those places. The easy way to watch porn is to connect to a VPN or go to shittier sites.
Why would anyone use this shit?
Same reason I’d use any cheap easily accessible VPN.
To get AT&T off my back every time I pirate some anime or a new movie.
I don’t know about you but trusting google with that sorta thing just seems risky to me
I trust Google’s VPN more than I trust AT&T’s internal tracker, as Google’s never sent me an angry email complaining about my network traffic.
One one hand fair, on the other, why trust either?
Its not trust but utility. I need a VPN. Google has a VPN. I use their VPN.
It’s cheap and easy for me to use it while traveling around and going on god knows what public wifi network. I am not using google VPN for privacy, but using it for some sense of security out of my home. Already paying for Google One storage, so this was a nice perk.
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@asdfasdfasdf @Copernican
It all depends if you trust the ISP less than a random VPN provider. With DNS over HTTPS and mostly encrypted traffic these days, the ISPs don’t get to see more than IPs. But IPs are sometimes all they need to figure out what your browsing, especially in some countries where they can throttle your traffic depending on what you’re doing. Luckily, in the EU that is illegal, so all you’d need a VPN at home for is bypassing geo-restriction and maybe hiding your Linux seedsHehe. Yeah. I dont need my ubiiquiti dream router categorizing how many gigs of porn hub gets into my home based on IP.
Google is removing the VPN and free shipping (which was only available on some photo orders) to make way for more “in demand features”?
I could understand if this was coming from a smaller company with more limited resources and staff, but that’s not Google by any means.
They really don’t care about the poor reputation the general public has of them regarding shutting down services on a whim.
What’s worse though is they don’t seem to realize that, with the exception of Android and maybe Google Docs, their services/products are easily replaced by competitor offerings.
In my opinion it’s a good thing if Google gets knocked of their high horse and allow competition to flourish in their place.
Google docs is only good for collaboration. Otherwise its insane that MS Office is still superior to it.
Hell, Libreoffice is admittedly slightly behind MS for features, and its still superior to Google Docs.
The big advantage of google docs is that it is free and good enough. Most people don’t need advanced formatting options, font size and a few choices are sufficient.
And Libreoffice does that better
And, you know, is actually free
Sure but I can’t run libreoffice on my iPad, and that’s a deciding factor for more people than the licensing.
Oh sweet green earth. Why the hell would you ever edit documents on an ipad
You need a job with a sane IT policy.
Why wouldn’t you? They’re super convenient, being small and lightweight, with high quality keyboards that make them more laptop like, plus they support standard USB and Bluetooth keyboards. They aren’t full laptop replacements, but basic office productivity tasks they surely are, and have first class support from Microsoft office, google docs, and Apple’s office tools. In a meeting for example, they can be used to take notes, and then quickly screen mirror to a TV wirelessly or with a wired adapter and be used as a drawing tablet for sketching ideas or drawing diagrams. Extremely versatile, there’s nothing really like it (well, besides other tablets).
They certainly don’t replace a real laptop in all aspects, but they do for most people most of the time, hence why it’s common for people to use smartphones and tablets as their only computer.
What’s actually is worse that people do not care and continue using Google, being arbitrarily dependent on them.
This is shocking.
I’m shocked.
This is my shocked face I have on right now.
Kind of funny that they sent an email with like 3 benefits of Google One being dropped but nothing added back.
They should drop Google One. It’s literally just storage afaict.
Google had a VPN?
Didn’t they advertise this as one of the benefits of buying a pixel phone?
Less than a year and it’s gone… Not that it was much of a feature in the first place
It will remain a feature for Pixel 7+ users
That’s not a feature. Just clarifying that.
But… Why are they taking it down if they still support it?
