Microsoft kills off Defender ‘Privacy Protection’ VPN feature

Microsoft announced it is killing off its Privacy Protection VPN feature in the Microsoft Defender app at the end of the month to focus on other features.

The tech giant’s announcement does not give a detailed explanation as to why the feature is being deprecated. However, the wording indicates the feature is not being heavily used, and the company wants to focus on other features.

“Our goal is to ensure you, and your family remain safer online,” reads Microsoft’s announcement.

“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.”

Privacy Protection is a VPN solution added to the Microsoft Defender app for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS as part of 365 Personal and Family subscriptions.

Subscribers are given 50 GB of monthly data to protect their privacy while connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots. 

In September 2024, Microsoft expanded Defender’s utilization of the VPN feature, automatically detecting unsecured connections and offering to activate it for enhanced protection against Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) and Evil Twin attacks.

Despite all that, Microsoft never really marketed the feature aggressively, and Defender’s VPN only found limited embrace and adoption in the U.S. market.

Although Privacy Protection is going away on February 28, 2025, Microsoft noted that device protection, identity theft, and credit monitoring (only for the U.S.) will continue to be available as usual.

For Windows, iOS, and macOS users, no action is required. Android users, though, should remove the Defender VPN profile from their device, as leaving it unchanged will impact their network browsing capability after the end of the support date.

To do this, head to Settings → VPN → Profiles → Microsoft Defender → click info and remove it. Note that these steps may vary depending on the Android or OEM versions.

The deprecation of Privacy Protection on Defender comes after a price hike on Microsoft 365 subscriptions last month, the first one in 12 years, reflecting the integration of AI-powered features like Copilot into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.

Naturally, the removal of a useful feature bundled in the suite so soon after a rise in price isn’t going to resonate positively with impacted customers.