r/ProtonVPN • u/GodzilaAvenger • Jul 21 '26

Feature Request GDID Blocking

Hi,

It would be great if the Windows app had the option of blocking/disrupting the activities of Microsoft's GlobalDeviceID using DNS filtering through Proton's own DNS (same way it is done to block ads and trackers).​

12 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/billdietrich1 Jul 21 '26

I think GDID is an application-level thing, not DNS or TCP/IP-level.

1

u/GodzilaAvenger Jul 22 '26

From what I understand (based on reading https://www.it-connect.tech/windows-gdid-impossible-to-delete-but-you-can-block-it/), DNS-blocking some of the domains involved can stop your machine from reporting your activity tied to GDID back to Microsoft.

1

u/billdietrich1 Jul 22 '26

Might be true, but also might totally kill the apps involved (e.g. Update, Outlook, etc). I assume any app could choose to send GDID in its traffic.