Google's main arguments are that other traffic is also exempt from this, that some VPN's might use the connectivity information, and that little data is revealed during these checks.

We do not think such an option would be understandable by most users, so we don't think there is a strong case for offering this.' 'We have looked into the feature request you have reported and would like to inform you that this is working as intended. The company reported the issue to Google, which responded with a 'won't fix' status for the issue, stating that it is intended behavior. It requires development tools and is technical in nature. Mullvad published a guide on disabling connectivity checks on Android. The metadata includes the source IP address and may be used to 'derive further information', according to Mullvad this would require a 'sophisticated actor' according to the company.Īndroid does not include user facing options to disable traffic that is happening outside the VPN tunnel. The entity that controls the connectivity check server and any entity that is monitoring networking traffic may obtain the data. Users may believe that their connection is protected against leaks when they use VPNs on Android. The leaking of information raises privacy concerns for some. Most Android users may want these checks, Mullvad notes. Mullvad gives the example of captive portals on networks, which require that users authenticate before connectivity becomes available. The data connections that happen outside of the boundaries of the VPN connection are done by purpose. What makes this even worse is that this happens even if the security feature Block connections without VPN is enabled on the device.

According to Mullvad's information, Android uses connectivity checks outside of the VPN tunnel when devices connect to wireless networks.

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