They also believe that the impact on user privacy is minimal.Īfter taking into account the points raised by Google, Mullvad still thinks that the proposed additional feature could be useful to users. The developers also said that there are other exceptions that could be more risky, such as those applied to some privileged applications. In particular, the company claims that some VPN apps rely on these controls to function properly. Next Mullvad’s request (opens in new tab) for an additional option to disable these connectivity checks when the “VPN lock” is enabled, Google developers explained that the leak is actually a design choice. “However, this could be a privacy issue for some users with certain threat models.” “We understand why the Android system wants to send this traffic by default,” Mullvad VPN wrote in a blog post (opens in new tab).

And it is precisely on these occasions that Android VPN services leak some traffic data whether or not the option to block unprotected connections is activated. Some wireless networks (such as Wi-Fi in the hotel or public transportation, for example) may require a connection check before establishing the connection. This allows access to censored sites, avoids bandwidth throttling and ensures online anonymity – the last point is especially important on public Wi-Fi connections. View more Android Features That Mislead VPN UsersĪ VPN is a tool that people use, among other things, to encrypt internet traffic while hiding their real IP location. Android leaks traffic when running connection check and neither VPN services nor can you prevent it, October 10, 2022

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