Google plans to launch a VPN service for consumers, which would be available with certain subscription plans for its Google One cloud storage services.

The VPN will be a free perk to the $9.99-a-month 2TB plan on Google One, the company’s cloud storage service. Soon, the Google One app for Android will display a new function that can activate a VPN over the user's smartphone. 

The company is offering the VPN as a safeguard to prevent hackers from snooping on users’ unencrypted web traffic if their phone is ever connected to a public Wi-Fi network. A VPN can stop the potential eavesdropping by encrypting the phone's internet connection, thereby scrambling the data flowing to and from the device.

Designed for secure internet usage, virtual private networks (VPNs) are used by individuals in countries where access to certain sites and services have been barred by governments.

Google said the VPN service will roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks through the Google One app for Android users, with plans to expand to more countries and to iOS, Windows and Mac operating systems in the coming months.

“We already build advanced security into all our products, and the VPN extends that security to encrypt all of your phone’s online traffic, no matter what app or browser you’re using,” the company wrote. "The VPN is built into the Google One app, so with just one tap, you can rest assured knowing your connection is safe from hackers.”

“With VPN by Google One, we will never use the VPN connection to track, log, or sell your online activity,” the company wrote in a paper  about the technology. “Some minimum logging is performed to ensure quality of  service, but your network traffic or IP associated with the VPN is never logged.” 

“To demonstrate how our design works, we have open sourced the code that runs on a user’s device and in the coming months we will be open sourcing the server side user authentication mechanism as well as providing the results of a third party audit, currently underway,” the company added. 

Source- Reuters