The VPN feature of Microsoft Defender will be removed by the end of February.

Microsoft has decided to remove the VPN service included in Microsoft Defender. The company has updated its support pages related to privacy protection to inform that this service will no longer be available starting February 28. The VPN, which was integrated into Microsoft Defender —accessible to Microsoft 365 personal or family subscribers— allowed for private browsing by "routing internet traffic through Microsoft's servers," with a monthly data limit of 50GB.

In a statement regarding this decision, Microsoft indicated that its goal is to ensure that users and their families remain safer online. The company mentioned that it periodically evaluates the usage and effectiveness of its features, and for this reason, it has decided to remove this privacy protection feature to invest in areas that better align with customer needs.

After the service expires, Android users may still see the Microsoft Defender VPN profile in their settings and will need to manually delete it if they wish. However, for Windows, iOS, and macOS users, Microsoft assures that no action is required.

For now, this is the only feature that will be removed. Microsoft has confirmed that other features, such as device protection and identity and credit theft monitoring (in the U.S.), will remain available.