In order to compete with Google for the browser market, Microsoft has done everything in its power. After the adoption of Google's Chrome kernel, Microsoft's epoch-making new generation of browser Edge, whether in terms of performance, appearance, or ease of use, compared with the previous Internet Explorer, has made great progress, and even from the use experience, it is now not much different from Google's Chrome. But this obviously did not meet Microsoft's expectations, and recently, Microsoft came up with a killer: a VPN service will be built into the Edge browser, and it will be free to use.
According to foreign technology media news, Microsoft's official support page has confirmed the news a few days ago, Microsoft said: "Microsoft Edge secure network can help you protect your device and sensitive data when browsing." Specifically, when users use Internet services through Microsoft's Edge browser, they can get VPN services for free, and with the help of this feature, the user's browsing data, personal privacy and other sensitive content will be encrypted for operators or other third-party institutions, which cannot be detected, so as to maximize the protection of user data security."
Microsoft summarizes several aspects of the service on its official support page:
First, encrypted connections: Encrypt your internet connection to help protect your data from online threats such as hackers. When using Microsoft Edge Secure Network, even with a non-secure URL that starts with HTTP, your data is routed from the Edge over an encrypted tunnel to create a secure connection. This makes it harder for hackers to access your browsing data on shared public Wi-Fi networks.
Second, prevent online tracking: By encrypting your web traffic directly from Microsoft Edge, your Internet service provider will not be able to collect your browsing data, such as details about the websites you visit.
Third, keep your location confidential: Web service providers can use your location and IP address to analyze and send you targeted advertising. Microsoft Edge Secure Network allows you to browse using a virtual IP address that masks your IP and replaces your geographic location with a similar regional address, making it harder for online trackers to track you as you browse.
Fourth, it is free to use. These so-called "secure networks" from Microsoft will be rolled out to users for free, and users will be able to use the service for free when browsing the web through edge browsers.
First, the service is specifically provided by Cloudflare, which does not collect any information about users through the service, but Cloudflare collects limited data to support the provision of services, and this data is permanently deleted after 25 hours. Second, the "secure network," while microsoft offers it for free, has a traffic limit, specifically, each user will receive no more than 1GB of encrypted traffic per month.
Considering that the major social networks in the country began to display the IP addresses of users, and thus aroused widespread concern, the "secure network" service provided by Microsoft Edge browser seems to have some attractive features, because it is clear that if I use domestic social networks through edge browsers, I can obviously obtain a foreign IP address, which dispels network users who have concerns about displaying their real IP addresses.
But this idea is actually impossible, because according to my tests, after downloading and installing the latest version of edge beta, there is still no "safe network" setting, I estimate that on the one hand, Microsoft may not have opened the test to Chinese Simplified users, and for well-known reasons, even if it is fully launched in the future, I am afraid that Chinese Simplified users will still not be able to "enjoy" this benefit.
This is actually a very unfortunate thing, because although the VPN seems to be a controversial thing in China, but in foreign countries, THE VPN is widely used, the reason is that foreign countries attach importance to personal privacy and data security, and the VPN is essentially a technological innovation of the Internet, only in China has become a controversial thing, so in fact, this is also a very helpless thing.