Does pixel xl phone need vpn app or will shut down?

[Android Central Question]

My phone got a message saying that I needed to download a VPN protect app or it would shut down, is this for real? I thought Google protect on my phone was enough.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Welcome to Android Central. That's an ad, most likely from a popup in your browser or from a popup in an app.

Please see the following link. https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=888939&p=6247924&viewfull=1#post6247924

 

[methodman89]

A VPN is a virtual private network. As stated it's spam.

 

[Rukbat]

I thought Google protect on my phone was enough.

No single app always has the latest virus definitions, so no single app will protect in all cases. (Even running 20 of them at once might not catch a virus that was just released a few minutes before you went to the site it was released on, and your phone got hit.) A virus soesn't have "virus" stamped on it, it's just an app that does things you don't want done - like formatting your storage or encrypting your phone with a password you don't know (and you have to pay to get - ransomware).

Learning how to not get malware is more important than protection. Protection is only good if you took all the precautions you could, but picked up a cheap, poorly-written virus anyway. Not just the Pixel, any phone, any laptop, any desktop - anything connected to the internet.

(And a VPN won't "protect" a computer [your phone is a computer] if a virus connects to it directly, or inserts itself between the VPN server and the website you go to.)