IP address is assigned to each and every single device that wishes to connect to the internet.
Anything that wants to connect to the internet, or even a local network, has to have an IP address. Just like how physical addresses help identify where people are in the real world, IP addresses help in identifying where a particular device is in the digital world.
By having an IP address, a device can communicate with other device, and have other devices communicate with it.
IP address is crucial to exchange information, whatever form or format it is.
While IP addresses can be either static or dynamic, the nature of IP addresses as unique identifiers makes them capable of being tracked.
When speaking about privacy, this isn't good.
Google proposes a solution.
Google knows that IP addresses provide essential functionalities of the web, and no devices can be on the internet without it. But IP addresses pose significant privacy concerns because they allow trackers to track users wherever they are on the web.
In other words, Google recognizes the potential misuse of IP addresses for covert tracking, Google seeks to strike a balance between ensuring users' privacy and the essential functionalities of the web.
In order to balance the two, the tech giant said that it wants to have what it calls the 'IP Protection' feature for its Chrome, in order to enhance the web browser users' privacy.
What the feature does, is routing third-party traffic from specific domains through proxies, making users' real IP addresses unknown.
To enhance the privacy, Google bounces users' traffic more than once.
"We are considering using 2 hops for improved privacy. A second proxy would be run by an external CDN, while Google runs the first hop," explains the IP Protection explainer document on a dedicated GitHub page.
"This ensures that neither proxy can see both the client IP address and the destination. CONNECT & CONNECT-UDP support chaining of proxies."
This should help safeguard users from cross-site tracking, among others.
And to ensure that online services that utilize users' geographic location as a necessity won't get disrupted, Google plans on assigning IP addresses to proxy connections that represent a "coarse" location of a user rather than their specific location.
"Chrome is reintroducing a proposal to protect users against cross-site tracking via IP addresses. This proposal is a privacy proxy that anonymizes IP addresses for qualifying traffic as described above," said Google in a description of the IP Protection feature.
Google said that it wants IP Protection to be an opt-in feature, at least initially, in order to give users the control over their own privacy.
It's worth noting that there are some downsides of using this IP Protection feature.
First of, because all traffic shall be proxied through Google's servers, it may make it difficult for security and fraud protection services to track and block the attacks. Then, if one of the Google's proxy servers is compromised, hackers could be able to manipulate the traffic going through it.
Google plans to address these issues before its wider roll out.
Google also wants to introduce the feature in multiple phases, to accommodate regional considerations and ensure a learning curve.
Google wants to learn as it goes.
Initially, Google is testing this IP Protection feature on its own platforms, like Gmail and AdServices.
It's also worth noting that the feature was originally called "Gnatcatcher."