On occasionally using Google Play on cellular network without a VPN

leafnose

Hello,

I’m trying to determine if occasionally using Google Play on cellular network without a VPN would give Google more information than they already have.

Context:

Trying to redeem a Google Play Card (not much hope left, the support is ‘Play’ing with me)
SIM card under my real name (Europe)
Google Play installed in the Owner profile (the three apps are most of the time disabled)
Under normal circumstances, Owner profile has a kill-switched VPN
Google Play Store is signed in with a pseudonymous – or ‘anonymous’ – Google account
Assuming all my previous interactions with Google on my device were made through an on-device VPN connection
Would connect roughly in my area (would maybe help prove I’m in the stated country, if that’s the issue)
Each connection to my carrier seemingly get me a new public IP; I don’t know if those IPs are geographically bound, but I assume that everyone using the carrier could get the same IPs (standard carrier practice, I guess)

So, I’m having a hard time finding any real caveat, knowing my threat model does not assume that anyone will ask for a correlation between my public IP and my Google Play use at a given time (apart from any kind of mass surveillance automated correlation), and that I mostly want to conceal my use of Google Play from Google itself, in order to avoid any real name or home address correlation with my Google account.
As for my carrier ID (or its name), it seems that it is not a secret anyway: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/13578-carrier-not-hidden-from-google

Is there anything I have not taken into consideration? What did I miss? What would they get more than a carrier public IP address?

Thanks.

treequell

leafnose What would they get more than a carrier public IP address?

Nothing that I can think of. You already have the Google account, and the information that is transmitted to the Google account is not affected by whether you're connected to a VPN, other than that you'll have a different IP address.

leafnose Would connect roughly in my area (would maybe help prove I’m in the stated country, if that’s the issue)

All apps you install can see the country code of your SIM card, and I believe also the country code of the cell tower you connect to. Google can therefore be assumed to know which country you live in, regardless of whether you use a VPN. The only way around that would be to have a WiFi only device that you keep in airplane mode all the time, and don't install a SIM card in.

leafnose

treequell
Thanks for the reply.

All apps you install can see the country code of your SIM card, and I believe also the country code of the cell tower you connect to. Google can therefore be assumed to know which country you live in, regardless of whether you use a VPN.

Indeed, but when I read that many people have issues with redeeming Google Play Cards or purchasing on the Store, I can only imagine they have multiple layers of verification for the country, hence my speculation that they use the IP ranges from carriers to check the location.
I first used a foreign pseudonymous account, but since I decided to buy apps, I had to be transparent regarding my real country, so them knowing in which country I live is really the goal here, in the case it really is the issue – they only talk about discrepancies with the info I gave them.
However, I have no idea if they can more precisely (that is, more precise than just the country) determine where I live based on the public IPs I can get in my region.

Nothing that I can think of.

That’s good news I guess!

treequell

If you're trying to redeem a Google Play Store gift card, your Play Store country may need to be the same as the country which you bought the gift card in.

For more details, see https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/7431675

leafnose

treequell
Yes, that was implicit. I was maybe not clear enough.

I didn’t want to bother the forum about redeeming Google Play Cards (yet), because it is apparently not an easy task in many cases. The main purpose of this thread was to understand the risks associated with using Google Play without a VPN while on a cellular network, and you alleviated my doubts regarding this matter.