Microsoft Edge is leaking the sites you visit to Bing

Microsoft Edge is leaking the sites you visit to Bing
Short Title	Microsoft Edge Privacy Issue
Location	Online
Date	April 2023
Solove Harm	Surveillance, Aggregation
Information	Online Activities, Searches
Threat Actors	Microsoft, Bing
Individuals
Affected	Microsoft Edge Users
High Risk Groups	Individuals with Sensitive Browsing Habits, Individuals Relying on Confidentiality
Tangible Harms	Loss of Trust, Some consequences, Potential for Misuse

Microsoft's Edge browser has been found to send URLs visited by users to its Bing API. This is because of a poorly designed "creator follow" feature that sends information to Bing about the most visited sites and is activated by default. By turning off the "follow creators" option in the Edge browser's settings, users can protect their privacy.

Description

Microsoft's Edge browser has been reported to send URLs to its Bing API, raising privacy concerns. This was first noticed by Reddit users, who observed that Edge sends the URL of nearly every page visited to bingapis.com. A Reddit user pointed out the problem, and software engineer Rafael Rivera looked at it further. The reason for this is that Edge has a new feature called "creator follow" which is activated by default and allows users follow content creators. However, nearly every visited URL is mistakenly sent to Bing by this feature.

Microsoft tested this feature a year ago, and it was recently made more widely available. To stop sending URLs to Bing, users need to disable the feature. Caitlin Roulston of Microsoft stated that the company is aware of the issue and is working to find a solution. It is recommended that users disable the "follow creators" feature in Edge's privacy settings until Microsoft resolves the issue.

Laws and Regulations

Data Security and Privacy Laws
California Consumer Privacy Act of (2018)

Sources

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/25/23697532/microsoft-edge-browser-url-leak-bing-privacy