Virtual phone numbers
Google Voice privacy rating
Phone number service from Google that gives a US number for calls, texts and voicemail through web and mobile apps. It is free for personal accounts in the US and paid as part of Google Workspace.
Summary
Google Voice scores 38 out of 100 (grade F) on the virtual phone numbers criteria. It meets 3 of 8 criteria: transparency report, tells users about requests and TLS configuration. It partly meets independent audit. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales and security headers. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B-.
Score 38 out of 100. How scoring works
Criteria
- No
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No
No trackers or telemetry Weight 3 of 3
Are the website and apps free of third-party trackers, with any analytics anonymous and any telemetry off by default?
The home page loads Google Tag Manager (automated test).
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No
No ads or data sales Weight 2 of 3
Is the product funded without advertising, ad targeting or selling user data?
The free personal service is funded by Google, whose business relies on advertising and uses account activity to personalise ads.
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Partial
Independent audit Weight 2 of 3
Has an independent security or privacy audit been published within the last three years?
Google Voice is in scope of Google's SOC 2 and SOC 3 audits. Only the SOC 3 summary is public.
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Yes
Transparency report Weight 2 of 3
Does the provider regularly publish how many government and legal requests it receives and how it responds?
Google publishes counts of government requests for user data twice a year.
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Yes
Tells users about requests Weight 1 of 3
Does the provider promise to tell users about requests for their data, unless a court forbids it?
Google states it notifies users before disclosing their information unless prohibited by law or in emergencies.
Automated tests
-
Yes
TLS configuration Weight 2 of 3
Does the website pass the Qualys SSL Labs test with a grade of A or better?
Grade A
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No
Security headers Weight 1 of 3
Does the website pass the Mozilla HTTP Observatory test with a grade of A or better?
Grade B- (65/100+)
-
Not tested yet
Modern web standards Weight 1 of 3
Does the website score 90% or higher on the Internet.nl website test?
Not tested yet.