Microsoft Edge ‘leaks’ user browsing history to Bing API: Report
With all the attention Microsoft Edge has been garnering over the past few months with GPT-4-backed Bing, there’s a new development that suggests the browser has been leaking user-visited sites to its API site, bingapis.com. This privacy concern was originally raised by Reddit users. According to The Verge, the latest version of Microsoft Edge sends a list of URLs from every page visited to bingapis.com.
Reddit user Hackermchackface, who first discovered the bug on the site, stated: “Searching for references to this URL returns very few results and no documentation for this feature at all.” While most users couldn’t identify the exact cause of the privacy issue, software engineer Rafael Rivera investigated and found it to be a “poorly implemented new feature in Edge.”
“Microsoft Edge now has a creator tracking feature that is enabled by default,” Rafael Rivera told The Verge. He added: “It looks like the intention was to tell Bing when you’re on certain sites like YouTube, The Verge and Reddit. But it doesn’t seem to be working properly, sending almost every domain you visit to Bing.”
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The Verge reports that Microsoft began testing the creator tracking feature last year, but only recently made it widely available. It allows users to order and discover artists and content creators online. If users choose to stop using the feature, Bing will not send URLs to bingapis.com, preventing a privacy violation.
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue and is working to fix it. Until then, it is recommended that users disable the Creator Follow feature.
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