A Microsoft support page has revealed that the Edge browser is set to receive a security upgrade in the form of a built-in VPN powered by Cloudflare.
As XDA Developers reports, the new VPN feature is called "Microsoft Edge Secure Network" and is expected to work in a similar way to Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 service. When enabled, it will encrypt all data and keep your location private by using a virtual IP address. Cloudflare will only collect diagnostic and support data from the service and that data will be deleted every 25 hours.
The support page explains how Secure Network is a free service, but data use is limited to 1GB per month. It's unclear if Microsoft is going to offer a way to increase the data limit with a subscription. Perhaps it will become an extra feature offered with an active OneDrive or Microsoft 365 subscription?
It seems as though this support page appeared earlier than Microsoft intended as nobody, not even those signed up to the Microsoft Insider program, can try out the VPN yet.
Free VPN services are nothing new, but Microsoft offering one by default in a browser that's installed with every copy of Windows will concern other VPN providers. Why would consumers download another free VPN when they already have access to one on your PC? Microsoft Edge isn't exactly a popular browser choice, and the feature set of this built-in VPN will be quite limited, so the impact on other services should be minimal.