Microsoft's Defender VPN: barely announced, already history

The VPN service in Microsoft Defender for Individuals –, which Microsoft only made available in Germany in October 2024 as part of Microsoft 365 Family or Personal –, is already history again at the end of this month. The service was therefore not even available for six months.

Microsoft has now publisheda support article in which the company announces this step. In response to the question posed there as to why Microsoft is removing the privacy protection function from the Defender app, the company writes: "Our goal is to make sure you and your family are safer online. We regularly review the use and effectiveness of our features. As such, we are removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that better fit customer needs."

Cause remains unclear

However, it remains unclear why the function actually has to go again: It is not even possible to guess whether it was underused, as suggested in the marketing statement, is simply too expensive or has been abused.

However, other functions are not affected, data and device protection remain intact, as do threat alerts. It is also possible to monitor whether identity theft has occurred or to set up "credit monitoring" – limited to the USA –.

As Microsoft Defender in iOS handles web protection (phishing protection) via a VPN entry, users of the software on Apple mobile devices will still be able to monitor the use of a VPN, but it will only be an internal loop-back VPN. Anyone using the Microsoft VPN in Android should manually remove the "Microsoft Defender" profile in the VPN settings. Although it does not cause any damage, it could give the false impression that Defender uses it for protection.

The discontinuation of the function comes just four months after Microsoft announced it for Germany and other regions around the world.

(dmk)