Keeping your data safe is critical. But there are situations when your data is especially vulnerable, such as when you’re using the Wi-Fi at an airport or coffee shop, and a phone data breach is the last thing you want to deal with in any situation. 

Anytime you use your Google Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro, your data is protected by the Google Tensor G2 chip and the certified Titan M2 security chip, providing multiple layers of security to help keep your personal info safe.

That includes being certified under Common Criteria, the gold standard for security hardware like credit card chips and SIM cards.² Google also brings Protected Computing to features like Live Translate,³spam detection in Messages,⁴and Smart Reply – so they can provide intelligent, personalised experiences right on your device, safely and without going to the cloud. And with Google Pixel 7, Protected Computing helps keep your health and wellness data private. For example, with your permission, cough and snore detection within Digital Wellbeing can help you understand the quality of your sleep by analysing audio during the night.⁵ That audio data is processed right on your Pixel 7.

Of course, not everything can be processed on your device – like browsing the web. This is where a virtual private network, or VPN, comes in. Google offers VPN security for phones as another layer of protection for your network traffic. VPN by Google One comes with Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro at no extra cost, and is also available to anyone with an eligible Google One plan.¹ Just activate it in the Google One app. With VPN by Google One built in, Pixel helps protect your online activity and phone data security no matter what app or web browser you use.

But what is a VPN, why is a VPN for mobile phones important, and when should you use them? We talked with two cybersecurity experts to understand how VPNs, and in particular a Pixel VPN, can help keep your online activity safe from prying eyes.

A VPN helps you browse the web safely by encrypting your traffic. When you visit a website, data gets sent from your device to the site you’re accessing. But first it gets passed through the Wi-Fi router you’re using to access the internet and through your internet service provider. VPNs hide your network data by creating an encrypted connection between your device and the VPN server, so that neither your internet service provider nor any other entity between your device and the VPN server can see what websites you’re browsing or apps you’re using.

A VPN also helps keep your browsing secure by masking your IP address – the unique identifier assigned to you and tied to information like your location and Internet Service Provider. Websites and advertisers use your IP address to track the websites you visit and the kind of content you enjoy. VPNs replace your personal IP address with a new one assigned by the VPN server, reducing the ability of sites to track you across visits when you’re not signed in.

“What a VPN does is provide a tunnel directly into the site that you want,” says Herb Lin, a senior cybersecurity researcher at Stanford University. “If anybody listens in along the way, all they pick up is gibberish.”

VPNs are especially important when you’re using public networks – like the free Wi-Fi at a coffee shop – and even when you’re scrolling through social media or gaming at home. “The other reason you might want to use a VPN is if you’re just worried about privacy,” says Jason Hong, a cybersecurity expert and professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Not all VPNs are built the same, according to Hong. VPNs can protect you against some outside attackers, but you need to trust that your VPN service is using strong encryption and won’t snoop on your traffic. “Using a VPN doesn’t necessarily mean that your data is private, because the company that’s offering you the VPN can still inspect traffic,” Hong says.

Unlike some other VPN services, VPN by Google One is a verifiably private VPN for phones. Google uses a technique called “blind signing,” which separates your Google Account from the servers that route your traffic. The result is that nobody can associate your browsing traffic with your IP address on your secure smartphone. We publish the source code for our VPN so that anyone can verify how we do this. VPN by Google One will not track or sell your browsing activity either. Minimum logging is performed to ensure quality of service, but your network traffic is never logged, and your IP address is not associated with your activity.

An intrusion or breach can be devastating. Having the right protections and having a data-secure mobile phone will help keep you safe and bring you peace of mind, no matter where you are or what you’re doing.