Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
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Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.
We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025.
Others like @mullvadnet and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August.
Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual."
Here's what's actually happening
️@protonprivacy @mullvadnet I had decided long ago not to use VPNs on Android because it didn't actually help. Connecting to the onion network and using Tor tools does kind of help but only solves half of the problem. far better to work from Linux instead of Android where you have the option but in my case that means not using the cell phone for that particular traffic or anything that requires real security.
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@rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Sure. But cant do everything at once.
@ItsePerkele @protonprivacy @semitones
Skill issue
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -
@protonprivacy Will Proton ever create / sponsor a cell phone OS to be a true google replacement?
@semitones @protonprivacy To be a true Google replacement, all of the vendors would have to write their drivers so that they could be incorporated into either Android or this new probably Linux-based phone operating system. We already have solutions that work for one or two or twelve different models or vendors, but all of the rest of the cell phone ecosystem is currently out of reach. I propose an alternative, a version of Android that belongs to the community, but will use the vendor's drivers and can replace Google Android with the community android. Google will, of course, attempt to make that technically impossible and illegal if they can, because that's what monopolies do.
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Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.
We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025.
Others like @mullvadnet and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August.
Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual."
Here's what's actually happening
️We need an android alternative we the people own.
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@semitones @protonprivacy To be a true Google replacement, all of the vendors would have to write their drivers so that they could be incorporated into either Android or this new probably Linux-based phone operating system. We already have solutions that work for one or two or twelve different models or vendors, but all of the rest of the cell phone ecosystem is currently out of reach. I propose an alternative, a version of Android that belongs to the community, but will use the vendor's drivers and can replace Google Android with the community android. Google will, of course, attempt to make that technically impossible and illegal if they can, because that's what monopolies do.
@wpeckham @protonprivacy that would have to be a fork of android AOSP, right? To keep google from making breaking changes?
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@rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Proton: "hey google is ignoring this issue, lets make them fix it"You: "you are not 1000% perfect, Proton! Man up! Greedy fucks!"
@ItsePerkele @rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Rudeness aside. There is a compelling reason to ditch google as fast as possible. Security and personal control. We need to rapidly shift the center from a market focus on helpless users who want to be fed and diapered to people that want to own their own lives before we get lobbied and legislated out of existence.
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Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.
We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025.
Others like @mullvadnet and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August.
Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual."
Here's what's actually happening
️@protonprivacy @mullvadnet does anyone know if this is an issue on @GrapheneOS as well or if its been patched there.
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@ItsePerkele @protonprivacy @semitones
Skill issue
¯\_(ツ)_/¯@rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Since you have the skills, I look forward to your open source VPN, email service etc.I also look forward to your initiatives that teach children about public private keys, identity verification, trust, & best practices.
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@ItsePerkele @rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Rudeness aside. There is a compelling reason to ditch google as fast as possible. Security and personal control. We need to rapidly shift the center from a market focus on helpless users who want to be fed and diapered to people that want to own their own lives before we get lobbied and legislated out of existence.
@oldoldcojote @rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Yup I don't disagree with any of that. I've degoogled myself pretty well. I do watch youtube every now and then through Revanced app. I'll buy a Jolla or some such phone as my next one, but my biggest issue is being dirt poor at the moment. Can't do any upgrades until the situation improves.
But other than degoogled android and youtube, I don't use google services.
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@rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Since you have the skills, I look forward to your open source VPN, email service etc.I also look forward to your initiatives that teach children about public private keys, identity verification, trust, & best practices.
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@oldoldcojote @rusty__shackleford @protonprivacy @semitones
Yup I don't disagree with any of that. I've degoogled myself pretty well. I do watch youtube every now and then through Revanced app. I'll buy a Jolla or some such phone as my next one, but my biggest issue is being dirt poor at the moment. Can't do any upgrades until the situation improves.
But other than degoogled android and youtube, I don't use google services.
@ItsePerkele @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Hell yeah, every bit helps. Capital is a serious barrier and keeps some of us from participating in boycotts further exemplifying how broken things are. Keep it up. Social consciousness and all that bs, hope you have a smooth day out there.
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@ItsePerkele @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Hell yeah, every bit helps. Capital is a serious barrier and keeps some of us from participating in boycotts further exemplifying how broken things are. Keep it up. Social consciousness and all that bs, hope you have a smooth day out there.
@rusty__shackleford @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Its pretty funny how much stuff I've learned in the past year alone, just because I wanted to completely get off the Mr. Corporate Death Machine. I switched to Debian, ditched Discord for IRC and like mad man decided Weechat would be the client to go to. I've been looking into self hosting all my silly bullshit. I'm getting tired of reddit and missing the good ol' mid 2000's forums, so I'm looking into that as well.
By the time I get off the medical and get a job, I'll hopefully have studied enough to start doing shit.
I'm thinking of going the low/old tech approach. Seems like a fun project to do. Buy a used PC, throw a linux and a few hard drives on it and set it up as a server. etc.
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Issue Tracker Links:
@protonprivacy is this supposed to be limited to A16 and the Google stack? Because I'm having a very similar issue on A15-based /e/OS from @e_mydata where the VPN (seemingly) randomly stops. It seems to be a bit less severe, though, since just restarting the app restarts the VPN properly, but I was wondering if it was related.
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@rusty__shackleford @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Its pretty funny how much stuff I've learned in the past year alone, just because I wanted to completely get off the Mr. Corporate Death Machine. I switched to Debian, ditched Discord for IRC and like mad man decided Weechat would be the client to go to. I've been looking into self hosting all my silly bullshit. I'm getting tired of reddit and missing the good ol' mid 2000's forums, so I'm looking into that as well.
By the time I get off the medical and get a job, I'll hopefully have studied enough to start doing shit.
I'm thinking of going the low/old tech approach. Seems like a fun project to do. Buy a used PC, throw a linux and a few hard drives on it and set it up as a server. etc.
@ItsePerkele @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Self hosting is no joke, great to see that level of passion, just got into IRC myself but I'm thinking of hosting xmpp.
On a similar journey, these are books I'm reading (modern c unrelated):
Suggested I get hands on experience at this point, so I'm taking the advice, looking at openwrt, this video uses pfsense/ opensense if I remember right:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_IzyJTcnPu8
I want to get mail running, then deploy akkoma.
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@ItsePerkele @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
Self hosting is no joke, great to see that level of passion, just got into IRC myself but I'm thinking of hosting xmpp.
On a similar journey, these are books I'm reading (modern c unrelated):
Suggested I get hands on experience at this point, so I'm taking the advice, looking at openwrt, this video uses pfsense/ opensense if I remember right:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_IzyJTcnPu8
I want to get mail running, then deploy akkoma.
@rusty__shackleford @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
My experience is literally 30min's of doing HTML 27 years ago and 1 hour lesson of "how to code" 30 years ago, taught by the local nerd who happened to know how to do the "hello world" lesson.
So I do have some catching up to do... lol
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@rusty__shackleford @oldoldcojote @protonprivacy @semitones
My experience is literally 30min's of doing HTML 27 years ago and 1 hour lesson of "how to code" 30 years ago, taught by the local nerd who happened to know how to do the "hello world" lesson.
So I do have some catching up to do... lol
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Google has known about a bug that breaks VPN apps for 7 months, leaving users exposed with no warning or error, just a VPN app that stopped working in the background.
If you're using ANY VPN on Android, you can help us by getting Google's attention to fix it.
We first reported this bug to Google in September 2025.
Others like @mullvadnet and Wireguard reported it even earlier, in August.
Google's response? "I don't see anything unusual."
Here's what's actually happening
️@protonprivacy @mullvadnet if Captain Gemini says the plane isn't on fire, then then the plane isn't on fire. Your eyes that are getting incinerated are lying to you...
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@protonprivacy @mullvadnet is this an issue in @GrapheneOS too or was it fixed there?
@ojocle_olonam @protonprivacy @mullvadnet @GrapheneOS Strange. Yours is the third time this question was asked about GrapheneOS and the GOOG VPN bug, but nobody answers.
Consider this the fourth request for an answer!
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@ojocle_olonam @protonprivacy @mullvadnet @GrapheneOS Strange. Yours is the third time this question was asked about GrapheneOS and the GOOG VPN bug, but nobody answers.
Consider this the fourth request for an answer!
@quixote @ojocle_olonam @protonprivacy @mullvadnet We've already posted multiple responses to this being asked across platforms. It won't cause a leak on GrapheneOS unless you explicitly disabled leak protection which is enabled by default. GrapheneOS has leak protection enabled by default and closes numerous standard Android VPN leak bugs.
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@quixote @ojocle_olonam @protonprivacy @mullvadnet We've already posted multiple responses to this being asked across platforms. It won't cause a leak on GrapheneOS unless you explicitly disabled leak protection which is enabled by default. GrapheneOS has leak protection enabled by default and closes numerous standard Android VPN leak bugs.
@GrapheneOS @ojocle_olonam @protonprivacy @mullvadnet Thanks! I hadn't seen it before because I'm a hermit and this is the only platform I'm on
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