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Google is getting ready to try out a new 'IP protection' feature in Chrome. This feature will give users more control over their privacy. It will work by keeping websites from tracking users. Google will do this by hiding your IP address with its own proxy servers.
Just to refresh your memory, an IP address is a special number that can be used to figure out where a user is located. Advertisers use it to see what websites a user goes to and show them ads that match their interests.
Google plans to introduce the IP protection feature in a few steps. In the initial phase, they will route Google-owned domains, such as Gmail, through a single proxy server. This is just to check if everything works well. For now, only a small group of people in the US will get to try it out.
If you're using Chrome and you've logged in, you can use the IP protection feature. To make sure it's not misused, Google will have an authentication server that sets limits on how much each user can use.
In the next steps, Google will use a 2-hop proxy system. This means when a website wants to know about you, it will first go to a Google server, and then that server will talk to an outside system like Cloudflare.
Even though the IP protection feature can make your online activities more private, Google wants to make it clear that it's not 100% perfect. If a hacker manages to get into Google's proxy server, they could see everything that goes through it and could even send you to dangerous websites.
Because Google makes a lot of money by keeping an eye on what people do online and showing them ads based on their interests, it will be quite a challenge for them to find a good balance between protecting user privacy and making money. It's something to keep an eye on.
