What you need to know
- All Google One members get free VPNs, irrespective of their plans.
- Google has announced that its dark web monitoring service is also expanded to all Google One members.
- These services were earlier limited to premium Google One plan and Pixel 7/7 Pro device owners.
Google One is the most popular subscription service from the company that gives users some benefits like extra cloud storage that allows Android device owners to back up their data, such as device backup, and store files (including photos and videos). The well-received program is about to get better in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday, Google announced that it is expanding its VPN by Google One for all subscribers, irrespective of their plans.
The said VPN service was earlier limited to Google One premium tier members (opting for 2TB plans and more), and it has been available for Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro owners since for free as well. Now, subscribers on lower-tier plans will have access to the service.
VPN (Virtual Private Network) by Google One gives users a private and secure connection while working on public Wi-Fi, like at a café. It establishes an “encrypted tunnel” between the device and a remote VPN server. It also masks the IP address of an Android device owner using the service to ensure they are safe from hackers or network operators.
Starting with the basic plan of Google One and up to the premium tier, the VPN is available in 22 countries across Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac devices. Additionally, Google says users can share the VPN with five others based on the Google One subscription plan, which can be handy in many scenarios.
In addition to the new perk, Google is also bringing dark web monitoring for all Google One members in the U.S. All Android device users under the program can check or scan for their data, including name, address, email, phone number, and Social Security number, to see if any of their information is at risk.
Google says this tool will essentially provide users access to a “hard-to-reach” part of the internet that usually requires specialized browsers to access. This way, with the new feature rolling out to Google One members in the next few weeks, they can cross-check whether their private information has leaked or been sold to the dark web.
“For example, if your Social Security number was found on the dark web, we might suggest you report it as stolen to the government or take steps to protect your credit.”
In such cases, Google will notify affected users, guide and provide relative steps to tackle and protect sensitive information. The search engine giant further clarifies that it will strictly follow its privacy policy while monitoring users’ data while cross-checking. Additionally, users can choose to stay in or opt out of dark web monitoring, per their choice, which is convenient.
While we await the Pixel March feature drop, Google has made its cloud subscription plan much more attractive for iOS and non-Pixel Android users. In addition to these features, the company recently rolled out Magic Eraser and other AI editing tools for subscribers using Google Photos. The best part is that these features are also not limited to specific plans and are available at a larger scale for the masses on Google One service.
