What you need to know
- Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions now include a VPN service at no extra cost.
- The VPN service is currently available in the US, UK, Germany, and Canada and works on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS with the Microsoft Defender app.
- Advertised as a privacy protection feature, this VPN offers 50GB of bandwidth which resets monthly.
Did you know your Microsoft 365 subscription includes access to a free VPN at no additional charge? I didn't either until I stumbled across it today in the Microsoft Defender app on Windows. Advertised as a "privacy protection" feature, Microsoft now bundles a VPN service as part of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions.
To access the VPN, you just need to install the Microsoft Defender app and enable privacy protection, which is available on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. This means you can use this VPN on any platform, including your smartphone. Unfortunately, the VPN is only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada right now.
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The VPN includes a 50GB data limit, which does reset every month., Microsoft says the VPN isn't designed for streaming content such as music or video, and will even disable itself when accessing services like YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, or TikTok. Here's how Microsoft describes the feature:
"Privacy protection is a feature that's included with Microsoft Defender for individuals. This feature encrypts your internet traffic and hides your internet address (IP address) from prying eyes. It gives you 50GB of monthly data limit (per user) to browse the web securely and anonymously. Microsoft Defender helps protect your privacy and security when you are on public Wi-Fi or untrusted network, where your data and identity could be exposed or stolen. Privacy protection is easy to use, fast, and reliable. You can turn it on and off with a single click, and it will automatically select the best server for you."
Unfortunately, unlike other VPN services, Microsoft's one is rather limited in functionality. You can't choose a server region for the VPN, and the 50GB data cap might be quite restrictive for some. Still, considering Microsoft began including this with Microsoft 365 for "free" earlier this year, there's not much to complain about.
The good news is this is the only VPN service I've tried so far that actually works on Windows on Arm!
