Microsoft’s Defender VPN feature will be discontinued at the end of this month.
The free VPN feature within the security app Defender (Windows 365) will be discontinued by Microsoft at the end of this month. The VPN service was available on Windows as well as Android and iOS.
Why?
“Our goal is to make sure you and your family are safer,” Microsoft says on its support page. So a real reason for the discontinuation is not given. “We routinely evaluate the use and effectiveness of our features. Therefore, we are removing the privacy protection feature and investing in new areas that better meet customer needs,” Microsoft continues.
Users were given a data limit of 50 GB per month; after that limit, speeds were limited to only 256 Kbps. On Android and iOS, certain apps were excluded from VPN use, including WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.
The discontinuation comes at a surprising time, as Microsoft recently raised the price of Microsoft 365. That’s because Copilot was bundled unsolicited, so the total package is now called Microsoft 365 Copilot.