To use the feature, though, user authentication might be needed.
Your IP address, which indicates where you are geographically, is one of the factors that advertisers use to create a profile of you. It is a piece of the data transmitted when you connect to any website or service that you visit. However, Google now wants to alter Chrome’s IP address sharing policy in order to better safeguard user privacy.
Your browser cannot block requests for your IP address, unlike cookies. It is an essential component of how the internet functions. One is given to you by your internet service provider for a reason—so that it can identify the source of a connection request and the destination for the data that results. No matter the internal IP addresses your router has assigned to your devices, every one of them will be viewed as having that IP address when they are at your location. It is comparable to having only one landline at home. Even though each user of the line may have a distinctive name, anyone tracing a call will only be able to see the address the line is connected to. On the basis of that, habits and interests are tracked.
According to Bleeping Computer, Google intends to thwart that procedure by redirecting your traffic through proxy servers with its new “IP Protection” feature. Your IP address will be concealed by routing the data through a middle server. IP Protection will initially only function for a limited number of domains before expanding to cover more domains and offer cross-site tracking protection.
Using a VPN is more secure than using proxy servers. However, not all your browsing is necessarily covered when traffic is routed through a proxy server (much like how IP Protection initially only supports a small subset of domains). Moreover, the data is not encrypted. You’ll need a VPN for greater privacy.
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They are not error-proof, either (though VPNs are not either). The threat of actors infiltrating Google’s proxy servers is one of the company’s security worries. Then, the flow of traffic could be observed or even changed (by being diverted). To prevent this problem and the misuse of the feature to launch DDoS attacks, Google may require user authentication before allowing access to the proxy servers.
However, IP Protection is a first step in creating a barrier between the public and trackers. You must be logged in and have chosen to participate in the program to use it. It will first be made available to US users. Between Chrome versions 119 and 125, the first iteration of this feature, which will only function with Google-owned domains, will be tested. On Github, you can read more about the project and learn about its future goals, such as the potential use of two hops for traffic to increase privacy.
