Whenever you browse the Internet you can be leaking data without realizing it. They could know your location, for example, as well as your public IP address. There are methods to improve privacy and hide certain data, such as a VPN. Now from Google Chrome going to protect your public IP address further. They are going to introduce a change that can be very useful for those who want to improve privacy when visiting web pages with this browser.
Keep in mind that, through the public IP, they could learn more about you. For example, they could know where you are physically located. The feature, known as IP Protection, will allow improved privacy by hiding IP addresses through proxy servers.
Chrome wants to protect the IP
It is a measure with which they intend to avoid misuse of IP addresses to track users. With this, Google seeks an improvement in privacy without losing certain essential functions of the website. A website may offer more personalized things, for example, but it also raises privacy concerns without users having a way to control it.
The IP Protection function that Google proposes for its Chrome browser, what it is going to do is route traffic from third parties from specific domains through proxy servers. Basically, what they achieve with this is that, when you enter a web page, that domain does not really know what your public IP address is.
This proxy will make browsing the Internet even more anonymous. It is going to be a function that they are going to introduce little by little, in different stages, so it will take a while to arrive and it will not be the same for everyone, at least initially. In addition, initially only certain web domains will be affected, which will be those considered to be tracking users.
Different phases
As always happens, in a change of these characteristics evidence is needed and a learning curve to avoid problems. The first phase will be to test using these proxy servers only for Google websites and for users in the United States. A group of users will be part of this test and thus be able to analyze possible errors or improvements that may have to be introduced.
From there, the following phases will begin. From Google they indicate that, in future phases, they hope run a second proxy through an external CDN. There would be what is known as two jumps, the first being from Google and the second from that external CDN. The goal is that no proxy they use can see the client’s IP address.
But what about web pages where it is necessary to know the location to display content that really interests users? For example, we can name a website to know what the weather is going to be like. According to them, IP addresses will not be assigned to proxy connections that have an approximate location.
Therefore, while waiting for this Chrome novelty to begin testing, we are facing another change more aimed at improve privacy. The objective is that we can visit websites with more guarantees that personal or location data is more protected. Measures such as protecting the Chrome profile with a password have served to enhance security and privacy.
