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Google starts selling its Titan security key in Canada, Japan, the UK, and France

Google starts selling its Titan security key in Canada, Japan, the UK, and France

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The rest of the world may follow

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Google Titan key
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

A year after arriving solely in the US, Google’s Titan two-factor authorization security key has now landed in Google’s online stores in Canada, Japan, the UK, and France. If you are working with sensitive data in one of those countries, it might be worth considering. 

Google’s Titan security key is a physical security solution that (similar to competition from Yubico and Feitian) enables hardware-based two-factor authentication for the FIDO standard, letting you log into a number of apps and browsers using the key to verify that it’s actually you, instead of relying on a comparatively weak password. The key can connect to the device that requires authentication in three ways — via USB, NFC, or Bluetooth.

It’s taken a while to expand internationally

The key was initially designed for internal Google use, and has been in active use within the company for over a year, before being made available to customers outside the company last July.

Why has Google taken this long to expand to stores worldwide? We reached out to Google to ask, and a spokesperson stated matter-of-factly that it depends on how fast the keys can be made available in more regions. And, that the company’s working on that. Google declined to say how well the Titan security key has sold in the US.

In the United States, the Titan security key sells for $50. The prices abroad are similar: In Canada it costs $65 CAD (about $49), in Japan it sells for¥6000 (about $56) and in France customers pay €55 (about $61) for the device. It’s £50 in the UK. Shipping is free.