It’s no secret that the internet is nowadays a tap away. While it’s a significant opportunity for entertainment and productivity, it can also be a problem for individuals who prefer to stay secure and private.
Now, do you use YouTube, Google, or Google Maps?
If you do, you should know that Google monitors, collects, and stores your personal data. But is there something you can do to stop Google from tracking you?
Some people have no problem sharing their personal information and then search for information with Google. You may be one of those who want to stop Google from tracking and monitoring them online.
The good news is there’s a way to go around this – all you need are these three words: Virtual Private Network (aka VPN).
However, it’s crucial to note that while you might think, no one can easily identify you. At the same time, you browse the internet while connected to a VPN; whatever you do online can easily reveal your identity, and no VPN can make you anonymous.
So, does a VPN make you anonymous?
Before we dive into the battle between Google and a VPN, let’s try to understand how a VPN protects you online.
How a VPN Protects Your Privacy On the Internet
Privacy is never always given when you’re browsing the internet. Privacy is usually taken. It’s true that Amazon and Google record whatever you say, and they track your website visits. Facebook is also well-known for serving ads that match user search history or what you undertake online. However, that doesn’t always have to be the case, thanks to a VPN.
When you connect to a secure VPN, all your traffic goes through the VPN’s encrypted tunnel that no third party can see, not even your internet service provider, government agencies, or hackers.
Here are the major ways that a VPN uses to offer privacy online:
New IP Address
Ideally, a VPN helps change your real IP address and then assigns you a new IP address from its database. That means anyone trying to monitor your activities will only see the VPN’s IP address – that’s how you’re invisible online.
Your IP address typically reveals many details about you, like your region, city, ISP, and country. Now, as much as that information is not enough to pinpoint exactly your location, your ISP, government, online apps, and the websites you visit can easily track all your activities online when they know your real IP address. Powerful snoopers can even connect the dots to create a more personalized digital profile containing almost everything about you – which third parties might use to spam you or send targeted ads.
Encryption
Online encryption means the target recipient can only access all the data you transmit online, like the person you’re chatting with or the website you’re using. A VPN helps you hide your online search history from government entities, ISPs, and cybercriminals.
A VPN encrypts all of your internet traffic, meaning all your online data goes through the VPN server and turns into indecipherable codes. That way, it’s almost impossible for anyone to crack that code and learn what you’re doing online.
It’s easy to say that a VPN is a haven tool everybody should use on their devices. Unfortunately, while it’s an easy-to-use privacy tool, the truth is that it won’t stop a user from wanting to share their information or even tell a company who they truly are.
Here’s a typical example: if you simply allow website cookies, a VPN won’t be able to stop that website from using them. Furthermore, a VPN will not be able to stop websites from knowing who you truly are if you just sign in with your username.
So, a VPN ideally adds an important security layer, and hence, you should understand that there’s no VPN provider that can guarantee absolutely 100% anonymity. The reason is that you alone can control what you reveal online as a user.
That brings us to the question: Will a VPN make it anonymous to Google?
Are You Anonymous to Google with a VPN?
The truth is that a VPN will undoubtedly increase your anonymity online. However, you’ll lose such anonymity if you sign into your Google account.
Usually, website owners seek to know everything about their website, and they’re able to do that with ease; they try to find out the pages that people look at, the amount of time they spend reading every page, the links they click, the products they purchase, and the manner in which they arrive on the sites among others.
But do they know the person performing all the actions on the websites? Now, the fact that they don’t know exactly who you really are is what makes you private. Besides, it means that they don’t know exactly what interests you and hence won’t sell the information to the advertiser.
One thing that should stick in is mind that when you’re logged into a news site or even your social media app, such sites will be able to monitor all your activities. However, if you browse sites without signing in, it’s most likely that those sites won’t see whatever you’re doing – they can only track your online activity and come up with your profile based on your location and IP address.
Therefore, it means that if you browse the web without signing in to sites and turn your VPN on, those sites will never know your real IP address and location. That’s how you can be assured of anonymity.
What about Google?
Now, just like your social media apps, Google works with a similar logic – if you sign in to your Google account and surf the web without connecting to a VPN, Google will definitely know it’s you. However, if you sign into your Google account and connect to a VPN, Google will only know where you’re placed from your VPN’s IP address.
The good news is that your actions using Google services will still be logged and only tied to you. But here’s something interesting; Google can still be able to guess your location given that it already knows that it’s you (you signed into your Google account), and that’s one of the biggest clues.
So, are you anonymous to Google?
Signing into your Google account is merely the first thing that will tell Google who you are, which means even if you connect to your secure VPN, you’ll not be completely anonymous to Google.
However, that doesn’t mean that a VPN isn’t doing its work – a VPN is the best security tool that you can think of, thanks to the fact that it helps to hide your real IP address and location. Moreover, a VPN helps to protect your online traffic from attackers and snoopers. Furthermore, it offers access to geo-restricted websites and content, which includes Google that is censored in a few countries.
Perhaps you could be asking, is Google limiting your privacy, and should you delete your Google account?
Now, that could not be far from the truth; however, deleting your Google account is an extreme measure that you can take, and it entirely depends on what you decide. Besides, most things nowadays are very much intertwined with Google; for instance, most people use Gmail, Google Meet, Google Calendar, and several other Google services.
Furthermore, you’ll need your Google account to access significant services like the Play Store. Therefore, before you consider getting rid of or signing out of your Google account, remember the important services you might lose out on.
However, all is not lost! There are some measures you can take before you even think of deleting your Google account. Consider doing the following:
- Delete and turn off all your Google activity – navigate to your Google settings and turn off the history settings to ensure that all your activities online are not stored.
- Create a burner account – consider creating another Google account with fake information to make it difficult for Google or any other snooper to know who you are.
- Never sign into everything – not all Google services require signing in to your Google account, Chrome, and YouTube. Therefore, you should ensure that you sign in only when it’s really necessary.
However, you may decide to do away with your Google account. In that case, there are several alternatives that you can turn to, including privacy-focused services like Brave (browsers), DuckDuckGo (search engines), and email services such as ProtonMail.
Can You Download Android Apps without Google Play Store?
If you delete or sign out of your Google account, you can still install and update apps on your Android using APKs (Android Packing Kit). APKs allow the download of apps from outside the Play Store by downloading or transferring APK files to your device.
As much as the process isn’t as convenient as when you use the Play Store, it’s undoubtedly one of the best methods to live a private and anonymous online life. However, you should ensure that you only download APKs from app developers and not third parties. That way, you minimize any security risks.
Conclusion
Realistically speaking, there’s nothing like an anonymous VPN. However, a good VPN like ExtremeVPN offers invaluable security and privacy from online tracking, surveillance, data collection, hacking attempts, ISP monitoring, targeted advertising, and censorship laws. Furthermore, signing into your Google account won’t help if you want to stay anonymous with a VPN – you can consider deleting or signing out of your Google account to stay anonymous.