Microsoft Edge built-in VPN It has been launched for a while, and we have written about it beforeUse teaching, but I don’t know why,MicrosoftRecently, it has suddenly been actively promoting it, emphasizing in the official community that this is a privacy protection tool that is “free and requires no additional apps or subscriptions”. Edge It can be opened with just a few clicks. However, as this post appeared, a foreign privacy researcher wrote an analysis that slapped Microsoft in the face: “This is not a VPN at all, just a browser proxy.” Using the name VPN is seriously misleading.
Privacy researcher says Edge Free VPN is not a real VPN
The incident originated from the official Microsoft Edge Not long after, Sooraj Sathyanarayanan, a privacy researcher and security strategist at Brave browser, responded to the post and published a detailed technical analysis. “I did a complete security analysis of Microsoft Edge’s Secure Network VPN,” he wrote on X.
Sooraj is a long-term researcher on browser privacy and security issues, and currently works for Brave browser, which sells high privacy. He made it clear in the post: “Edge Secure Network is not a VPN, but an HTTP CONNECT proxy built on the Cloudflare Privacy Proxy Platform.”
He pointed out the following points one by one:
- Only traffic within the Edge browser is protected: other applications (such as the mail desktop version, background services, operating system updates), DNS queries, etc. all go through the original network and are not protected at all.
- Default “Optimized” mode: only active when on public Wi-Fi or browsing non-HTTPS websites. If you are browsing HTTPS websites on your home network, it will be completely useless. Unless the user manually changes it to “all websites”, most people will not open it.
- Must log in to a Microsoft personal account: used to calculate the 5GB monthly traffic limit. After logging in, the Edge synchronization function will be automatically turned on, and your browsing history, passwords, favorites and other data will be synchronized across devices.
- It does not have the features that a complete VPN should have: no kill switch (disconnection protection), no manual selection of the server region (automatically connects to the nearest Cloudflare node), no WebRTC leak-proof default turned on, and no independent public review.
- You have to trust two companies: Microsoft with your account identity, and Cloudflare with traffic routing. Microsoft says Cloudflare doesn’t look at identities or check content, but the entire system is closed source and cannot be independently verified.
- Other limitations: Traffic will automatically bypass the local IP (such as router 192.168.
Sooraj emphasized that this type of browser built-in tool is suitable for “light and convenient use” situations, but the word “VPN” should not be used in marketing, because most people will expect a complete encrypted channel when they see a VPN.
To this end, Microsoft has not yet made a direct public response. Foreign media Windows Latest reported that they have contacted Microsoft to ask about its definition of the term “VPN.”
The points analyzed by Sooraj are all true. The VPN built into Edge is not a complete VPN. You must know this before using it. But if you just want to simply protect your browsing behavior in Edge and occasionally use public Wi-Fi, I think Edge’s built-in VPN is enough, but remember to manually switch to the “All Websites” mode (adjustable in settings), and also pay attention to the 5GB monthly limit.
This incident basically reminds everyone that many “VPN tools” are not necessarily technically complete virtual private networks. For technology novices, the best approach is to first figure out what level of protection they really need, and then choose a suitable VPN, rather than just looking at the word “free.”
Source: KOCPC Chinese