Microsoft Announces the Addition of VPN Service to Microsoft 365 Personal and Family Subscriptions for Free Privacy Protection

Recently, Microsoft announced the expansion of benefits for Microsoft 365 personal and family subscription users, introducing the Microsoft Defender VPN service. This service is available for free and encrypts users' web traffic to prevent data theft.

Unfortunately, this service is currently only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada. Microsoft offers users 50GB of free traffic each month, which resets the following month without carrying over any unused data.

Once Microsoft Defender VPN is activated, Microsoft will automatically direct traffic through an encrypted tunnel for certain apps and services, such as YouTube, TikTok, Spotify, WhatsApp, etc.

This ensures that even when users are connected to public WiFi in hotels, cafes, or other public places, it's difficult for hackers to intercept their traffic. Additionally, it helps users mask their real IP addresses.

The service is compatible with Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Users must install the Microsoft 365 version of Microsoft Defender to enable the VPN, which is different from the Windows Security Center included with Windows 10/11. Microsoft Defender must be installed via the Microsoft Store and requires a Microsoft 365 account to log in.

According to Landian.news  review of Microsoft documents, this feature seems to be the same as the VPN used in Microsoft Edge, with services provided by Cloudflare. Cloudflare uses its global servers to find the nearest node for users, ensuring fast access and privacy protection.

To improve the service, Microsoft and Cloudflare collect the following data:

• Duration of VPN connection
• Bandwidth usage while the connection is active
• Automatic reporting if a WiFi hotspot is detected as malicious

Overall, the Microsoft Defender VPN is similar to Google's Google One VPN, although Google One VPN was only available on Pixel devices and has since been discontinued by Google.

Microsoft's approach differs by directly including the VPN service for free with the Microsoft 365 subscription, which not only attracts users to subscribe to Microsoft 365 but also expands its usability, avoiding the low usage issue that led Google to discontinue its VPN service.

Currently, Microsoft has not introduced a paid option for this service, meaning once the 50GB of data is used, users must wait until the next month for the data to reset. It's unclear if Microsoft will offer a paid plan in the future.