Microsoft Edge added a feature back in January 2022 which allowed users to follow content creators like YouTubers. However, this "follow creators" feature appears to be bugged in the latest update, according to reports online. The issue is pretty big when it comes to data privacy as every website URL visited is seemingly being sent to the Bing API servers "bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb/isfollowable". This is because the follow creators appear to be enabled by default all the time in the latest version, which means every URL or domain visited.
The issue was discovered first by Reddit user hackermchackface a few days ago. He wrote:
What is causing Edge to leak all visited URLs following latest update? API is: bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb/isfollowable ?
GET request includes full url of every page navigate to.
Searching for References to this url give very few results, no documentation on this feature at all. Json response shows type as “FollowableStatus” which yields zero Google results, which is rare.
Microsoft MVP and Stardock engineer Rafael Rivera gave the following statement to The Verge:
Microsoft Edge now has a creator follow feature that is enabled by default, 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
Microsoft has responded to The Verge confirming that it is aware of such reports. Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, has stated:
We’re aware of reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to address any issues
We will be updating this article when further updates are here.
Via: The Verge