Online privacy is more important than ever these days. Many people turn to a VPN (virtual private network) to help shield their data from prying eyes. Firefox has one, Opera has one, (*cough*Pornhub*cough*) and now Google is offering a free VPN to members of its Google One subscription plans — but only certain tiers qualify.

The new VPN by Google One is included on plans with 2 TB or more of storage, and is baked right into the Google One app that was released in 2018. It works by encrypting all of your device's traffic so that outside sources can't decipher what you're doing online. If you share your Google One plan with family members, they can get access to the VPN, too — as long as they use an Android device.

The Google One app is also home to free phone backups, so it seems like Google is trying to make it an app worth installing. This is a pretty neat perk that should come in handy, especially because of how easy it is to enable. Google actually has a free VPN service that comes on when connected to public WiFi networks if the "WiFi Assistant" feature is enabled on your particular Android device, but the VPN in the Google One app is much more visible.

The new VPN will start becoming available in the US in the coming weeks via the Google One app on Android, and will expand to more countries (as well as to other platforms like iOS, Windows, and Mac) later on. If you aren't paying for a premium Google One plan, you can always make your own VPN in less than 30 minutes.

Source: Google