Google Chrome is testing a new feature to automatically hide users’ IP addresses

When you use your browser, your IP address is visible to websites, online services, and threat actors who can use that information against you for tracking and other privacy-invading actions. At the same time, IP addresses are also necessary for things like traffic routing and fraud prevention.

If you’re not one of the approximately 3 billion people currently using Google’s browser, a forthcoming privacy upgrade could change that.

Chrome already uses site isolation, sandboxing, and predictive phishing protections on default to protect users from sites that might try to steal your passwords or use malware. Now Google is allegedly preparing a new privacy feature for its web browser that obfuscates users’ IP addresses — helping to stop prying eyes tracking your data across the web. 

Bleeping Computer first spotted the update, via GitHub. If implemented it would route users’ traffic through a Google-owned proxy server. This will make users’ IP addresses — which are unique identifiers that can be used to track users across the web — invisible to certain domains, thereby providing IP protection. Google might add even more proxies in the future, Tech Radar reported.

“Chrome is reintroducing a proposal to protect users against cross-site tracking via IP addresses,” the Github description says. “This proposal is a privacy proxy that anonymizes IP addresses for qualifying traffic as described above.”

IP Protection isn’t an across-the-board solution for privacy woes, especially when the traffic is going to be routed through a Google-owned proxy server. If Google’s servers get hacked, that hacker would have access to a ton of your information.

It’s unclear when Google will begin rolling out this new feature — but to start, only a select group of users will be able to test it.