Figure 1 – Privacy protection UI on the Defender mobile app

Public Wi-Fi is usually free, easy and convenient, but not necessarily always safe. As they say, there is no ‘free lunch’ .

Microsoft Defender for individuals1 aims to provide a safer online experience wherever you go and late last year, we introduced privacy protection (VPN)2 ,  so you can browse without having to worry about your personal data being intercepted over an unsecure Wi-Fi connection

Check out the previous blog to learn more about the risks of unsecure WiFi and how a Defender VPN increases your online safety

Evolution of Privacy protection (VPN)

During the past few months, we’ve made it even easier to stay safer online with auto detection and notification of unsecure WiFi, expanded privacy protection to support all of our device platforms and rolled out privacy protection to more countries. Check out the summary below on the latest on privacy protection

What’s new?

We have now expanded the scope of privacy protection in Defender with the below updates

Auto detection3 and notification of unsecure Wi-Fi connections with the ability to turn on a virtual private network (VPN) in the Defender app for added safety4
Privacy protection (VPN) is now available on all our supported device platforms including Windows, macOS,   Android, and iOS.
Feature availability in more countries including US, UK, Germany, and Canada. And more countries are coming soon. We’re adding privacy protection to ten additional countries5 in Europe, Asia, and LATAM regions soon.

Unsecure Wi-Fi detection

(Available on Defender for Android, iOS, Windows. Coming soon to  macOS)

These are typically your public Wi-Fi hotspots that may have weaker security encryption thereby potentially putting your personal data at risk.
With the un-secure Wi-Fi  notification, you can seamlessly turn on protection with Defender with just a single click
Support to automatically enable VPN on public Wi-Fi is coming soon

Enhanced detection on mobile with suspicious Wi-Fi detection

 (Available on Defender for Android, iOS. Coming soon to Windows and macOS)

We’ve added detection for un-safe Wi-Fi (suspicious Wi-Fi). These detections are possible using Defender heuristics that examine     multiple characteristics of a Wi-Fi hotspot to determine if it is suspicious. As with unsecure Wi-Fi, you get a notification for un-safe Wi- Fi as well and can turn on Defender VPN for added safety.

Figure 2: Unsecure WiFi notification on Windows

Figure 3 : Privacy protection with VPN on a Windows device

Getting started with privacy protection

1. Get the Defender app

You can download the app from the  Google Play Store, and Apple App Store or as a direct download (if you haven’t already)!

Sign-in with the personal Microsoft account (@gmail, @outlook, etc.) linked to your Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription or start your 1-month Microsoft 365 Family trial6.

Figure 4: Download from store

or

Scan the QR code:

Figure 5 : QR code to download app

2. Enable privacy protection

Open the Defender  app,  locate the ‘privacy protection’ card, and select ‘Get started ’ or ‘Finish setup’.  The setup process is easy and quick, simply follow on-screen instructions thereafter. Ensure you are running the latest Defender app version from the Google Play store / iOS app store

Figure 6 – Get started with privacy protection

Learn more at https://aka.ms/privacyprotectionFAQ 

References

[1] Microsoft 365 Family or Personal subscription required. Sign in with your Microsoft account. App is currently not available in certain Microsoft 365 Personal or Family regions.

[2] Privacy protection (VPN) is available on Windows, MacOS, iOS, and Android devices in select countries. Some streaming services are excluded. After 50 GB per month, data transfer speeds may be limited

[3]  Check out this article on how to setup the Safer Wi-Fi experience on your Defender app. 

[4] Usage of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) does not guarantee that your personal data will not be compromised. A VPN increases the safety of the internet traffic from your device by encrypting it to make it difficult for attackers to intercept and  snoop on to the traffic from your device

[5]  The list of supported countries (will be updated as we rollout)  for Privacy protection is HERE.

Feature availability by country is based on the billing country of your Microsoft 365 Personal/Family subscription and Defender VPN automatically connects to the nearest available VPN server based on the physical location of your device

[6] After your one-month free trial, you will be charged the applicable subscription fee. Credit card required. Cancel any time to stop future charges

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