Microsoft is planning to launch a free VPN service with up to 1 GB traffic per month for its web browser, Edge.
Microsoft Edge Secure Network will operate the VPN through a partnership with Cloudflare, the US-based content delivery and security network and will offer encrypted tunnelling of 1 GB of traffic per month. However, users will be required to sign-in to their Microsoft Account to use it. The company says this is to enable it to track the free usage but this obviously leaves many concerned about the data Microsoft and Cloudflare will be logging and storing.
Apparently, Microsoft says it will retain the bandwidth data for a month, after which the data is automatically deleted. Cloudflare, which will collect diagnostic information, has a policy of deleting the data every 25 hours.
When the VPN is switched on, which users can do from Edge’s menu, it will also automatically launch the sync service, share bookmarks, passwords and data across signed-in instances of Edge on the user’s other devices.
The 1GB data limit means that for most users Microsoft Edge VPN will not be a substitute for a paid-for service and again the question around the data stored is a cautious one. One of the main features of a good VPN service is that it does not store user logs! It may however provide a useful easy-to-access service for users travelling who want to be more anonymous publicly or secure unencrypted traffic and who are not aware of the other VPN services on the market, such as NordVPN.
VPNs are becoming a must-have add-on. Although by contrast, they are a less important for security than they used to be since almost all web traffic is now encrypted through HTTPS. However, they do add an additional layer of security protection and anonymity and are useful for accessing geo-restricted services.
As a comparison, a free VPN that has a no-logs policy and doesn’t limit the amount of monthly traffic, instead reduces network speeds on the free plan vs the paid-for plans is Proton VPN. Check out the features at https://protonvpn.com/
