A relatively recent feature that is enabled by default on Microsoft’s Edge browser enables you to “follow content creators” inside of Edge. The feature promises to generate a site-independent feed for updates from those creators that you can view in one location whether you follow numerous channels or individual users across other websites. It also gives you the option to save videos and other assets to your Collections. It’s also intended to provide recommendations for authors you might like to follow in order to encourage more users to use the feature.
The issue is that this function can be giving Microsoft information about every website you visit when using Edge. According to Reddit user hackermchackface, Edge version 112.0.1722.34 (published on April 7) sends the complete URL of any website you view, including locally hosted URLs and IP addresses, to a Microsoft-owned “bingapis.com” domain. If you were on a website that supported the content-follower function, like Pinterest, Instagram, or YouTube, older versions of the browser would only send this information to bingapis.com when you were on that specific website.
The feature was designed to simply alert Bing when you were on specified websites you had chosen to follow, but according to developer Rafael Rivera, “it doesn’t appear to be operating correctly, instead alerting practically every URL you visit to Bing.”
According to Microsoft, the corporation is “aware of reports” regarding the URL leak problem and “will take appropriate steps to rectify any issue.”
All of the creator-following capabilities can be turned off in the Edge settings by heading to the Privacy, Search, and Services section and scrolling all the way down, just like many of Edge’s more obtrusive pop-up-generating functions. However, these settings (along with the default search engine) typically need to be manually modified on each machine you use Edge on, even though many Edge settings can be synchronized between other computers if you’re signed in with a Microsoft Account.