The latest version of Microsoft Edge is sending a digital footprint of users, including the URL history of websites visited, to the Bing API site, according to a number of foreign tech media outlets including OnMSFT and The Verge.
Caitlin Roulston, Microsoft’s director of public relations, said the matter is being investigated and should be resolved as soon as possible.
On browser launch, the following GET request is sent:
www.bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb /getdomainfilter?Id=F1E45C4A7B95B48AC3F411C6214F6B861D0C276B&edgechannel=stable www.bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb/getdomainfilter?Id=F1E45C4A7B95B48AC3F411C6214F6B861D0C276B&edgechannel=stable
Roulston says the problem is caused by a feature in the Edge browser called “Follow this creator”.
For example, when you visit the B site, the Follow this creator icon appears in the address bar
The official statement to read in part: “The purpose of this feature is to allow users to notify Bing when they visit certain pages such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit, etc. So far this feature is not working properly and is sending Bing the history of all sites the user has visited. This feature is not working properly at the moment and sends the history of all websites visited by the user to Bing.”
