Microsoft is Investigating Privacy Flaw in Edge’s Follow Creator Feature
- Laurent Giret
- Apr 27, 2023
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Microsoft is investigating a privacy issue that’s causing Edge’s new Follow Creator feature to send all URLs users are visiting to Microsoft Bing. The privacy flaw was first spotted by Reddit users who discovered that the latest version of Microsoft Edge was quietly sending the full URL of nearly any opened website to Microsoft’s “bingapis.com” domain.
The new Follow Creator feature in Microsoft Edge 112 allows users to create a personalized feed with updates from video creators on YouTube. Speaking with The Verge, Rafael Rivera, one of the developers of the popular EarTrumpet app explained what went wrong in the implementation of this new Follow Creator feature.
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“Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default. It appears the intent was to notify Bing when you’re on certain pages, such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit. But it doesn’t appear to be working correctly, instead sending nearly every domain you visit to Bing,” Rivera explained.
In a statement shared with The Verge, Caitlin Roulston, Director of Communications at Microsoft said that “We’re aware of reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to address any issues.” Unfortunately, the company didn’t share more details about what went wrong here.
If you’re worried about Microsoft Edge sending a list of all the sites you visit to Bing, you can turn off the Follow Creators in Settings. You can do that by going to Privacy, Search and Services > Services, and there you should disable “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge.”