Google is currently in the process of testing a new privacy feature in Chrome.

As reported by BleepingComputer, this new feature is called IP Protection and, once activated, will allow users to mask their IP addresses using a proxy server. The reason behind this is that IP addresses are often used for cross-site tracking, as when Facebook and other social networks collect browsing data across multiple websites.

If you are familiar with the best VPN services, you will be given a completely new IP address each time you connect to the VPN, which can be used to prevent cross-site tracking. However, as with many of the best streaming services, there are some sites whose sites and content cannot be accessed even with a VPN enabled.

However, with Google's new IP protection feature in Chrome, you can protect your privacy without running into the same obstacles as a VPN. Likewise, this feature is completely free, and you don't have to pay for it like you do with ExpressVPN or NordVPN subscriptions.

IP addresses may be used to track you, but they also play a major role with respect to traffic routing, fraud prevention, and other important network tasks.

For this reason, Google's IP Protection feature for Chrome routes third-party traffic from certain third-party sites through a proxy server, making your IP address invisible to those domains online. It is also worth noting that when this feature is deployed to Chrome users, it will be on an opt-in basis.

In a post to GitHub, the Chrome team explained that IP Protection is intended to improve user privacy by protecting IP addresses used as a vector for tracking.

Google plans to roll out Chrome's IP Protection feature in several phases. In the first phase, the search giant will test the feature using its own proxy servers, making it available only to users logging into Chrome with U.S.-based IP addresses. In the future, however, Google plans to adopt a two-hop proxy system in which IP addresses go through two separate proxy servers to further protect user privacy.

However, in this two-hop proxy system, the first proxy will be managed by Google and the second proxy will be operated by an external content delivery network (CDN). This prevents both proxy servers from seeing both the client's IP address and online destination.

Another interesting feature of Chrome's IP protection is that Google assigns IP addresses to these proxy connections based on the user's location. However, instead of an approximate location, the user's "coarse" location is used. For example, I am writing this article in Houston, Texas, but with IP protection enabled, my IP address might show me as being in Sugar Land or Katy.

Google's IP Protection for Chrome can certainly help improve your online privacy, but there are several other steps you can take right now to do so.

First, reduce the amount of information you share on social media and other sites. This includes skipping "optional" information, such as when a site asks for a phone number or middle name. Similarly, it may be a good idea to start using a discarded email address instead of your actual email address when signing up for online promotions and other giveaways.

With regard to protecting your privacy, you also want to make sure that you are using strong, complex passwords for each online account. If this is difficult, you can always use the best password managers that create and store strong passwords.

I want to limit the number of apps I install to protect my smartphone and all sensitive information contained therein. On my computer, I want to remove browser extensions that I don't use often.

While VPNs are certainly a useful tool, they can slow down the Internet and make navigation to some sites difficult. We hope that Google's Chrome's IP protection feature will protect your privacy in a similar way without noticeable slowdowns. It is still in the testing phase, so we will have to wait and see. Check back when this feature becomes generally available, as we plan to try it out in action.