Users have noticed a bug in Microsoft Edge, starting with build 112.0.1722.34, which passes all URLs visited by users to the Bing API. This could potentially allow Microsoft to monitor all online activity of Edge users.
The issue was first discovered by a Reddit user, HackerMcHackface, who believes the error is related to a disabled content aggregation feature in Edge called Collections. This feature was previously limited to a subset of social networking sites, including YouTube and Pinterest, but has since become more widespread.
When visiting whitelisted pages, URLs are sent to the Bing API to determine whether the browser should show a pop-up window with a recommendation in the user’s address bar. If the user clicks on such a popup, content from that author will be added to Collections.
However, HackerMcHackface has found that a request to bingapis.com, with the full URL of the page being visited, is now almost always transmitted, allowing Microsoft to monitor all Internet activities of Edge users.
Microsoft has confirmed they are aware of the issue and are investigating. It appears the intention was to notify Bing when a user is on certain pages, but something went wrong and now Bing gets information about almost every domain a person visits.
Until the issue is fixed, Edge users are advised to disable this feature by going to the Settings, tab “Privacy, search, and services” and unchecking “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge” at the bottom of the page.
