Google is probably the last company I would pay for a VPN from
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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
People have trust issues with Google services.
Pretty reasonable
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.
I am part of people... I hate google, Microsoft, Apple. So you're right. We need a new hero.
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”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Anyone here even use this?
Yeah I use it all the time. For one you can download torrents at full speed with it. And it's great for when you are connecting to random wifi connections at restaurants and other businesses. Everyone in all of the threads has been like huurrr durrr Google for privacy hyuk hyuk, while giving themselves a reach around for being so smart. That's not the point of this VPN. It was a great tool that was a good value add to a storage service I already pay for.
A quick lightweight security tool for situations that require minimal security, which frankly for the public at large is all they ever need, the boogeyman is in fact not hacking your local coffee shop wifi work zombie access nodes, relax. It was also pretty handy when tmobile wants to throttle YouTube you could pop this on and get back to videos without buffering.
I didn't trust Google enough to torrent but definitely used it on my pixel while traveling. Especially when at relatives houses. I don't need my DNS requests being logged by their router.
I very much felt like you: it's a convenient feature-add for something I was paying for. I did not use it for privacy. I used it for convenience.
I have, yeah. While I was traveling internationally and the roaming mobile data rates were insane. So I used the VPN while connecting to hotel/public wifi.
A way to give Google even more of my personal data? I'm good, thanks.
Shocker