Privacy and security are not the same thing, but a lack of one often leads to an increased danger of the other being compromised. If a hacker using the “most sophisticated AI attack ever” succeeds in getting access to your Gmail account, your privacy is well and truly screwed. If an attacker can breach your privacy, meanwhile, access to sensitive data such as a list of all your passwords opens your accounts and devices up to attack. The removal of a privacy protection feature from Microsoft 365, which has some 400 million subscribers, is a surprise decision for the Seattle technology behemoth to make. Here’s what you need to know and do.
Millions Of Microsoft 365 Users To Lose VPN Access
Microsoft has confirmed that, saturating Feb. 28, the privacy protection feature in Microsoft Defender will reach end of support, meaning it will no longer be available to millions of paid subscribers to the Microsoft 365 service.
While Microsoft said that it remains committed to ensuring users are safe online, it routinely evaluates the “usage and effectiveness of our features,” and is, therefore, “removing the privacy protection feature and will invest in new areas that will better align to customer needs.” What those new areas will be remains to be seen, but the Microsoft statement raises more questions than it answers. I suspect that the “usage” part of the thinking is most critical here: the VPN function was only available to certain paid Microsoft 365 subscribers and all but hidden away within the Microsoft Defender application. It was always meant to be a worldwide privacy protection feature but never actually made it that far.
The Impact Of Losing Microsoft Defender VPN Access
Truth be told, I’m not a big VPN advocate. Certainly not, anyway, as far as the security arguments are concerned. You really don’t need to use a VPN in a coffee shop or at the railway station, airport and definitely not at home to keep hackers at bay. They do precious little to help in this regard. Even the privacy-protections are questioned by many security experts. Where a VPN does come in handy, however, is when you want to access geographically locked content by looking as ion you are located in a different country, even then the benefit is variable as many streaming services now detect their usage.
What Microsoft 365 Users Need To Do Now
For most users of the Microsoft Defender app within a Microsoft 365 subscription, the answer is nothing. Even if you were using the VPN, which Microsoft called the privacy-protection feature, no action is required by Windows, iOS or macOS users. Microsoft does, however, recommend that Android users should remove the Defender VPN profile from their devices. If you are hooked on having VPN access, then you will need to source a replacement before Feb. 28 if you want the continued benefits, such as they are. The bad news is that free VPN services are less likely to secure your usage data from all prying eyes than paid-for services, so do your homework before jumping aboard any solution. I have reached out to Microsoft for a statement.
