Microsoft introduced a new feature that it called Privacy Protection less than two years ago to Microsoft 365 Home and Family plans. The feature gave subscribers access to a VPN service along with 50 gigabytes of traffic per month.
Microsoft limited the feature to the Microsoft Defender app, subscribers, and users from a handful of countries only.
At this moment, Microsoft is sending out emails to users of the VPN that it is being cancelled.
The details:
- The service will be pulled on February 28, 2025.
- It affects Home and Family subscribers only.
About Privacy Protection: reason for its removal
I reviewed Privacy Protection back in 2024 on Ghacks. While bare bones, it was still miles ahead of Google’s offering, which I called the most basic VPN one could get. Interestingly enough, Google did shut down its Google One VPN in mid 2024 for many customers.
Microsoft explains on a support page that its goal is to ensure that subscribers “remain safer online” and that it decided to pull the feature after evaluation of its usage and effectiveness.
The company says that Windows, iOS, and macOS users do not need to take any action. Android users, who have used the feature, need to remove its VPN profile manually from their device.
These are the steps according to Microsoft:
- 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.
Microsoft Edge Secure Network, a browser VPN integrated into Edge by Microsoft, does not appear to be affected by the change.
Closing Words
VPN solutions, like Microsoft’s Privacy Protection or Google’s One VPN feature, offered basic functionality when compared to dedicated VPN solutions. Heck, Google did not even support options like selecting a server to connect to.
Major features, like dual-hop connections, selecting different protocols, using obfuscation techniques, or kill switch functionality, were never supported.
This does not mean that the basic VPN solutions were useless. Users could still use the VPNs to protect their Internet traffic, especially in public places.
Now it is your turn. Do you use a VPN service sometimes or regularly? If so, which one is your favorite and why?