The VPN feature on the Microsoft Defender tool will no longer be offered for free to individuals and will be unavailable from this month.
This change was very quietly announced by the technology giant through a new support document titled ‘End of support – Privacy protection (VPN) in Microsoft Defender for Individuals.’
It’s from February 28, in just a few weeks time, when users of the Microsoft 365 service will lose support for privacy protection through its built-in VPN. This has long been offered to anyone with a personal or family Microsoft 365 subscription as it has been automatically bundled in.
This feature enabled private browsing through routing the internet traffic through Microsoft servers with a monthly data limit of 50GB included.
When explaining its reasoning, Microsoft stated in the support documentation: “Our goal is to ensure you, and your family remain safer online.
“We routinely evaluate the usage and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs.”
What action do I need to take? VPN feature leaving Microsoft Defender
It’s only this feature that will be leaving Microsoft Defender, but Android users may see the Microsoft Defender VPN profile still in their settings after the expiration date. If they wish for it to be removed, this will have to be done so manually.
Guidance has been provided on to successfully do this, with the steps being as follows to remove Defender VPN:
- Go to your phone’s Settings app.
- Search for ‘VPN’ in the settings.
- If you’ve onboarded to privacy protection, you should see a ‘Microsoft Defender’ VPN profile in the list of VPN profiles.
- Use the info icon to tap on it and remove it.
For Windows, iOS and MacOS users, no action will be required as it will presumably be automatically removed when the feature is taken away.
Featured Image: AI-generated via Ideogram