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Microsoft Privacy Security IT Technology

Microsoft Testing Integrated VPN 'Secure Network' in Edge (neowin.net) 35

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Microsoft Edge could soon receive an integrated VPN service called the "Microsoft Edge Secure Network." The VPN (Virtual Private Network) service would work very similar to commercial VPN services, but it could be deeply integrated within the Microsoft Edge browser. From a report: The VPN service will be powered by Cloudflare. The company assures it permanently deletes the diagnostic and support data collected, every 25 hours.
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Microsoft Testing Integrated VPN 'Secure Network' in Edge More

Microsoft Testing Integrated VPN 'Secure Network' in Edge

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  • and anything that needs geoip will block you.
    Like most pay steaming tv with local only stuff and sports that has blackouts.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      Uh, yeah . . . that kind of goes along with using a VPN.
      I'm sorry - did you have a point?

      • Re: and anything that needs geoip will block you (Score:4, Insightful)

        by satanicat ( 239025 ) on Thursday April 28, 2022 @05:57PM (#62487880)

        I know. There are lots we can do to protect privacy, finger printing etc. But the user experience is always going to be impacted in some way.

        I'm more concerned about who I trust with this sort of role to be honest. Like only an idiot would use a free proxy server listed on some underground forum.

        I mean, do we really trust a service that is provided out of the box, for presumably free to some extent, hosted by a company that doesn't allow you to opt out of telemetry entirely in the os you bought from them with real money?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ormy ( 1430821 )
      I may be off the mark here because I don't use streaming services. Only streaming services that you access through your (edge) browser would be affected. Any streaming service using it's own application and not using the browser would still work fine. Don't most streaming services have their own windows app rather than using the browser? Maybe not, I wouldn't know.

  • Uh huh... (Score:3)

    by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Thursday April 28, 2022 @05:33PM (#62487814)

    Looks like you have to be signed into a Microsoft account while you use it. So much for privacy. And you are limited to 1GB of data per month. Think I'll pass.

  • Tied to MS account, limit 1GB free / month (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday April 28, 2022 @05:38PM (#62487830)

    From Microsoft Edge is getting a built-in VPN powered by Cloudflare [xda-developers.com]:

    Microsoft Edge’s Secure Network mode will require you to be signed into your Microsoft account, and that’s because the browser keeps track of how much data you’ve used in this mode. You get 1GB of free data per month, and that’s tied to your Microsoft account.

  • The VPN service will be powered by Cloudflare. The company assures it permanently deletes the diagnostic and support data collected, every 25 hours.

    Is this just because of possible anti-trust issues? I'm too lazy to research whose network actually powers Cloudflare (or whether it's in-house), but it seems using Azure would be a good advertisement for Microsoft's cloud services.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      They're not going to (directly) profit from this unless Cloudflare is paying for it; why expend Microsoft resources for it? I'm sure the VPN offering is only meant to counter similar technologies in other browsers, not because Microsoft smells money to be had here. I'd guess Microsoft doesn't want to get too involved in this because it'd be their job to fix it if it breaks. This way, if anything goes sideways they can just point at somebody not in their Redmond offices - and since they're not charging fo

    • I'm going to guess that Cloudflare has more endpoints than Azure. You don't need a good highly scalable cloud service for a VPN, you need lots of network cables all over the world.

      • I'm going to guess that Cloudflare has more endpoints than Azure. You don't need a good highly scalable cloud service for a VPN, you need lots of network cables all over the world.

        Makes sense. In a network, we'd need more cable than storage. Still, I didn't think Cloudflare was that rich or had that many "connections", figuratively or literally.

  • Until they receive, before the service goes live, an NSL signed by a tame judge, at which point some 3-letter agency will simply get a stream of log data that Cloudflare won't be allowed to tell us about.

    With that in mind, they could add a line to their financial reporting statements with a tag of "National Security Letter payments'.

  • I see Cloudflare commits to deleting all VPN data every 25 hours. I bet Edge, which shares unique hardware fingerprints and every keystroke with Microsoft anyway, never deletes a damn thing (techradar [techradar.com]).
    • VPN testing. I have noticed your last nnn network connections are stored in the registry. I presume other logging entries will log the time of registry updates. Therefore the time you you used a VPN is LOGGED. NordVPN on win7 also does nothing about MS local connection logging in networklist profiles.

  • We're not getting enough data from people, so we're going to make sure we get ALL the data by routing it through our analysis cluster while advertising it as a "privacy" measure.

    • Nice conspiracy theory, but the reality MS already knows, no need for some VPN for that.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Ormy ( 1430821 )
      This. They are basically forcing you to route ALL your browser based traffic through their servers so they can slurp up all that delicious data regarding your browsing habits. No thanks.

  • Sorry, I prefer a VPN that MS can't get access to.

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