Friday, April 29th 2022
Microsoft May be Adding an Integrated VPN to Edge Browser
Microsoft is seemingly looking to add an integrated VPN (Virtual Private Network) to its Edge browser. A company blog post details the new Microsoft Edge Secure Network feature, which was developed in partnership with internet services provider Cloudflare. The feature will be initially deployed in Preview form, and isn't currently available in Canary and Dev releases of the browser.
According to Microsoft, Secure Network for Edge aims to increase users' security as they browse through unprotected - or less-than-ideally-protected - networks. In a day and age where hacking (in its various forms) is a daily occurrence, the company aims to help Edge users access the World Wide Web through what it describes as an encrypted, secure network. And if the partnership with Cloudflare pricked your ears at possible data collection issues, you can apparently rest assured: Cloudflare says it will only keep the required diagnostic and support data for a period of 25 hours after the last log-off. Do remember that the Edge sign-in requirement means that more of your data will be made available to Microsoft. But considering the added security and ease of use of a browser-embedded VPN and the increased privacy from all other data collection agents, most users will likely feature a net gain in privacy.
Other browsers, such as Opera, already integrate a VPN, and there are a number of extension-based alternatives for Chromium-based browsers. Microsoft's Edge Secure Network feature will be integrated into the browser, and users who sign-in to their Microsoft account on Edge can count on a "freeish" approach to billing. Microsoft says up to 1 GB of Internet traffic will be available for all users - thus standing to reason that additional traffic will be billed. That'll still likely be enough for users who want to conduct more sensitive internet operations like home-banking, but is a laughable amount for most internet usage patterns. Microsoft didn't announce pricing for the feature
Sources:
Microsoft, via The Register
According to Microsoft, Secure Network for Edge aims to increase users' security as they browse through unprotected - or less-than-ideally-protected - networks. In a day and age where hacking (in its various forms) is a daily occurrence, the company aims to help Edge users access the World Wide Web through what it describes as an encrypted, secure network. And if the partnership with Cloudflare pricked your ears at possible data collection issues, you can apparently rest assured: Cloudflare says it will only keep the required diagnostic and support data for a period of 25 hours after the last log-off. Do remember that the Edge sign-in requirement means that more of your data will be made available to Microsoft. But considering the added security and ease of use of a browser-embedded VPN and the increased privacy from all other data collection agents, most users will likely feature a net gain in privacy.
71 Comments on Microsoft May be Adding an Integrated VPN to Edge Browser
I see no conflict of interest here.
Yeah MS will say anything for people to use edge of a cliff :laugh:
The current system is like walking nude with your name painted on your chest through a mall.
Seems like more than maybe
www.elevenforum.com/t/turn-on-and-use-microsoft-edge-secure-network-vpn-service.6164/
If not, seems like a huge about-face for one or the other (although CF also charges for their premium VPN service, but that makes sense given their MO).
I wouldn’t recommend WARP for a lot of situations where privacy actually matters, but for the casual user it’s actually pretty good.
Disclaimer: sent from a phone using WARP’s free tier, owner of several domains “protected” by CF.
Edit: maybe I’m missing something about CF — please correct if I am!
Edit: Oh wait, I just checked your system specs. Windows 10. Go figure. Lets talk about using an OS by a company that sells personal information for profit, shall we? What could go wrong.
:)
edit - www.unixsheikh.com/articles/choose-your-browser-carefully.html
im not that tin foil hat, security is more important to me than privacy.............if they want to see how many hours I spend on Techpowerup, that's fine :)
We learn to circumvent, adapt, and overcome, usually with a strong firewall.
Too many games dont play well in Linux, that may have changed recently, but I dont keep up with that.Not all VPNs providers will track you, you have to check with their privacy policy.
and then there was the Farcebook VPN....
Coming even near true privacy means that you need many extra miles, effectively sactificing convenience and spending much on research.
Microsoft doesn't make that much money from "your private data".
This seems to be a good move for the absolute-average Joe that knows VPN exist. It could help them whenever they want to feel a bit safer, without having to download a separate VPN or do extra work, and 1GB should be enough for banking and things like that.
You’re not wrong that the consumer is being exploited in the exchange, but that’s the whole econimic basis here — how much does the consumer benefit from the exchange of consumer data?
I don’t understand how CF, whose privacy policies and commitment to privacy are pretty strong, benefits from this, while it weakens MS data extractivism. Maybe I’m missing something, but it’s not as obvious as you make it seem.Bootlick all you’d like, but I’d rather not. Privacy invasion is inevitable in any social contract, but not all actors are equivalent. Comparing MS and CF to Facebook really misunderstands how consumer data aggregation works.
That aside, having more browsers with built-in VPN is somewhat a good thing, I guess. =/