Google will stop VPN apps for Android from blocking ads

• Google announced modifications to its Play Store earlier this year, including limits on Android VPN apps.
• VPN apps won’t be allowed to reroute or manipulate traffic or ads that affect other services’ monetization.

Google has confirmed that it will soon start making it harder for VPN apps in its Android Play Store to stop or mess with ads.

The company’s Developer Program Policy, which was released in July 2022, says that starting November 1, only VPN apps that use VPN service and whose main purpose is to provide a virtual private network will be allowed to create a secure tunnel from the device to a remote server.

Google says permissible VPN apps shouldn’t collect personal or sensitive data without user consent. They shouldn’t reroute or manipulate traffic or ads that affect other services’ monetization.

Google announced modifications to its Play Store earlier this year, including limits on Android VPN apps.

Now, The Register(opens in a new tab) has found that the Swedish VPN app Blokada, which blocks ads, might be worried that the rule “will hinder at least the previous iteration of its software.”

This is about v5, which has been shut down “several times in the past,” according to the blog’s author and moderator, Reda Labdaoui.

Blokada believes v6 won’t have the same concerns because it employs cloud filtering. Blokada says this should have fewer battery life, device speed, and network speed impacts than local VPN filtering.

In an email to The Register, a DuckDuckGo representative said, “We don’t believe we’ll be impacted by the policy, but our team is continuing to review it.”

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