Google intends to test the Internet Protocol (IP) Protection feature for the Chrome browser, which works to enhance users' privacy by hiding their IP addresses using proxy servers.
IP addresses allow websites and online services to track activities across websites, making it easier to create permanent profiles of users, and this poses significant privacy concerns because, unlike what is possible with third-party cookies, users currently lack a way to directly avoid this secret tracking, although IP addresses may lead to tracking, they are also indispensable for important web functions, such as routing traffic, fraud prevention, and other vital network tasks.
Google's IP Protection feature handles this dual role by routing external traffic coming from specific domains through its proxy servers, which makes users' IP addresses invisible to those domains, and this feature provides a way to protect users from cross-site tracking using IP addresses. This proposal is a privacy proxy that anonymizes IP addresses.
According to Google, initially, the IP protection feature will be optional, ensuring that users control their privacy and allow Google to monitor behavior trends, as the feature will be introduced in stages to accommodate regional considerations, and initially, only domains listed in third-party contexts will be affected, highlighting those domains that are seen as tracking users.
During the first phase, called Phase 0, Google will transmit requests through proxy servers only for its domains. This will help Google test the infrastructure of the system and buy more time to adjust the list of domains that will be affected later. Initially, only users who are signed in to the Chrome browser and have IP addresses located in the US can access these proxy servers.
A selected group of clients will be automatically included in this initial test, and in the coming stages, Google plans to adopt a two-step proxy system to greatly increase privacy, and plans to test the IP Protection feature between Chrome versions 119 and 225 of the Chrome browser.
