I’m curious if anyone has some hard numbers or even anecdotal advice on using Google’s VPN service vs using something like Private Internet Access. I’ve thought of using PIA since it has the ad block functionality when you sideload their app.
I have a question for you: would you rather use a program, which is designed to protect your data and make you anonymous online OR would you use a program, which pretends to protect you, steals your data and uses for God knows what? yeah, I thought so. Never use a free product, never use a privacy tool that is powered by google, use something, that has one purpose - to protect you, like nordvpn, express or even PIA.
I have PIA and have tried the Google VPN, but haven’t really fully tested so grain of salt here.
They both have the same problem that switching them on/off will mess with apps and disrupt your data connection. It’s usually fine, but sometimes I’ve got to shut them off to get things to work or turn them back on as the case maybe.
PIA offers far more features like ad blocking and you can select where you want to egress from, so I like it better for those reasons.
My conclusion: For the price, Google VPN is good. For VPN, PIA is better.
I’ve been a subscriber of PIA for a few years. I like it.
That said, I can’t see using Google’s VPN ever given their primary business is tracking me, my browsing history, searches and trying to know my intentions in order to sell advertising.
I have both. I use Google VPN on my phone. The benefit is all sites are whitelisted on Google. I never have re-login.
On PIA there have been many times I would have to login in various apps, I assume the ip or location change.
One issue I’ve found with using a private VPN is that, at least on my phone, it will not download MMS while connected to the VPN. It works with the Google Fi VPN, however.
Edit for anyone who finds this: my VPN points to my home. I had my DNS set to OpenDNS servers on my home WAN. Changing my dns to Google’s public DNS fixed the issue and now I can get MMS over my home VPN
I wish I had an IFTTT where I could toggle Google’s… I like it at work, but not at home. I use a Pi-Hole and link the affects.
Google’s built in VPN on my Pixel 3 XL gave me connectivity issues sometimes. When I turned it off it would “fix” certain issues that I had trying to browse or load an app. Once I signed up for PIA and started using it heavily on my home machine, I decided to ditch the Google VPN - mostly for performance issues. I would also like to echo other comments made by redditors on this thread that while Google VPN may give you the sense of privacy (the likely just proxy all your requests through one of the Google data centers), I would be the house that google is using that data for their massive analytics machine. PIA is well documented for their privacy and they don’t have ulterior motives like parsing through your activities to try to spot trends and show ads, etc.
tl;dr F Google VPN; +1 for PIA
If you use PIA, save yourself some sanity and use the OpenVPN client with PIA’s services. The PIA app, the last time I used it a couple of years ago, was buggy as hell. OpenVPN has been much nicer across the board.
Yeah, I have been using the advanced network VPN or whatever it is called in Fi. PIA is definitely nicer since it has proper config options.
If memory serves, using PIA in always on mode broke automatically connecting to open WiFi. I’ll have to test that as well and ask Fi support about it.
I haven’t seen too much of the login issues with PIA. That is interesting that apps would make you do that.
That was actually the main driver for using PIA instead; I really miss ad blocking.
I think you are talking about the VPN with Automatic Wifi. Google Fi announced an always on VPN (in the Fi app, enable “Fi Network Tools”).
I use PIA at home already, so I actually subscribe. I more just want to make sure that using my own VPN won’t break anything with Fi.
I’ve tinkered a bit with their newer app, it is significantly better than it used to me.
Whoops, my bad. Most of what I said still remains true however, other than not having the ability to turn it on or off at will