Google is phasing out VPN by Google One in favor of other features and benefits it intends to provide Google One users.
    • Dojan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      3 months ago

      Honestly every single Google product should be added to it with a “TBD” or “Coming Soon” on the death date.

    • eronth@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      3 months ago

      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.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
      9·
      3 months ago

      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.”

    • smolyeet@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      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

    • Twitches@lemm.eeEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      They didn’t refund nest thermostat users when they verified those devices.

  • ITeeTechMonkey@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    3 months ago

    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.

    • Eheran@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      3 months ago

      What’s actually is worse that people do not care and continue using Google, being arbitrarily dependent on them.

    • Jimmycakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      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.

      • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.eeEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        Most people who truly care about privacy wouldn’t use google products at all, including their remote storage or whatever you’re using that makes this an inexpensive add-on.

        There are plenty of affordable remote storage and vpn services that aren’t google that have much better track records on privacy and don’t owe $7,000,000 in fines for an antitrust case.

        It’s nice that you’re saying people believe they’re super smart and make 4chan style noises because they write that they don’t like google for a privacy product, but I have to tell you: you do not need to give yourself a reach-around. Your genitals are on the front of your body.

    • Baron Von J@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      3 months ago

      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.

    • kescusay@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      I’ve never even heard of it. They sure weren’t putting their VPN front and center.

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        If you have Google one you can download the Google one app there’s a list of things you get in there and to redeem it from the app