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Microsoft’s Edge is caught leaking all website visits to Bing

Data leak.

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Microsoft Edge is leaking the sites people visit to the Bing API website. The problem started after Edge rolled out a new feature in the latest update.

The problem was first reported on Reddit by user hackermchackface.

However, the user was not able to find out why Edge was sending a request to bingapis.com every time users opened a new page.

According to software engineer Rafael Rivera, the problem was being caused by a poorly implemented feature that allows users to follow content creators on all platforms.

“Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default,” Rivera told The Verge. “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.”

Disabling the feature solves the problem. However, the feature is on by default.

Microsoft is yet to fix the issue.

“We’re aware of reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to address any issues,” Microsoft said. However, the company did not explain why URLs are being sent the to Bing API website.

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Tired of censorship and surveillance?

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