Microsoft has been criticized for years for its user-tracking tactics, but that hasn’t deterred the company from continuing to collect vast amounts of data. A Reddit user recently noticed that the latest version of Microsoft Edge sends a request to bingapis.com with the full URL of almost every site a user visits.
A possible bug in the “Follow Creator” project
The bingapis.com domain is owned by Microsoft and although others have reported the site to Any.Run in the past, no documentation of this feature has been found. Reddit users who responded to the thread discovered that Microsoft might have made a mistake in implementing the “Follow Creator” project. This project allows fans to easily follow YouTube creators with the push of a button. The problem is that apart from a list of blocked sites in the Bing API Master Filter, the function sends all the URLs you visit to Bing.
Rafael Rivera, a software engineer, explained that Microsoft Edge now has a creator tracking feature that is enabled by default. Apparently, the intention was to notify Bing when you are on certain pages, such as YouTube and Reddit. But it doesn’t seem to be working properly, and instead is sending almost every domain you visit to Bing, just like The Verge says.
Microsoft’s response
Caitlin Roulston, Microsoft’s director of communications, stated that they are aware of the reports and that they are investigating and will take any action necessary to address any issues. At this time, users can disable the Follow Creator feature in Edge settings to prevent Bing from collecting all data. To do this, you must go to Settings > Privacy, search and services. Then, in the Services section, turn off the switch next to “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge.”
What does this mean for user privacy?
This bug in the “Follow Creator” project has raised concerns about user privacy. Although Microsoft has claimed that it is investigating and will take action to fix the issue, many users may have felt betrayed by a company they trusted. Online privacy is a growing concern, and events like this only increase mistrust of big tech companies.
Instead of hiding their user tracking practices, companies should be more transparent about it. Users have the right to know what data is collected and how it is used. We should have full control over your data and have the option to opt out, even though we already know that all of that is utopia.
