Microsoft Edge now leaks the address of every web page you visit straight to Microsoft Bing. This appears to be a bug with one of the many extra features Microsoft has been cramming into Edge over the past few years. We’ve had enough.
That’s the problem.
The bug is part of a new feature in Edge that lets you follow “creators.” It’s enabled by default. It seems like the feature was intended to send web page addresses only from certain domains, like YouTube. But it’s not working as designed. Instead, it’s leaking much more of your browsing traffic than intended—nearly everything!
The problem hasn’t been fixed as of the time we published this article Microsoft is looking into it. Microsoft will probably fix it soon.
The problem is that Microsoft is cramming unnecessary features into Edge so quickly that the company clearly doesn’t have time to bug-check them or ensure they’re working correctly. Privacy and security are critical for browsers.
Sure, you can disable the “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” feature right now.
But what happens when the next weird feature shows up in Edge, and it’s also enabled by default?
Edge has been getting worse for years. In 2021, we wrote that Microsoft was making it hard to recommend Edge. That’s only gotten worse. In 2022, we wrote that Edge was now more bloated than Google Chrome. In 2023, we want to be clear that we can no longer recommend Edge like we did a few years ago. It’s not a clean browser that just gets out of your way anymore.
Here’s a list of some of our other problems with Microsoft Edge, aside from the egregious leaking-all-your-browsing-history problem:
Microsoft Edge Is Sloppily Leaking Your Browsing Traffic
As of April 25, 2023, Microsoft Edge is sending the address of nearly every web page you visit to Microsoft’s Bing servers. We’re not getting conspiratorial here—this seems like a bug. We believe it’s a bug.That’s the problem.
The bug is part of a new feature in Edge that lets you follow “creators.” It’s enabled by default. It seems like the feature was intended to send web page addresses only from certain domains, like YouTube. But it’s not working as designed. Instead, it’s leaking much more of your browsing traffic than intended—nearly everything!
The problem hasn’t been fixed as of the time we published this article Microsoft is looking into it. Microsoft will probably fix it soon.
The problem is that Microsoft is cramming unnecessary features into Edge so quickly that the company clearly doesn’t have time to bug-check them or ensure they’re working correctly. Privacy and security are critical for browsers.
Sure, you can disable the “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” feature right now.
But what happens when the next weird feature shows up in Edge, and it’s also enabled by default?
More Edge Junk: Loans, Registry Edits, and MSN Games
Here’s a list of some of our other problems with Microsoft Edge, aside from the egregious leaking-all-your-browsing-history problem: