There is no doubt that Microsoft’s Edge browser is a good web browser, offering better performance along with a range of additional possibilities for its users, but it is not a browser that can be felt as privacy-focused.
And it is that if years ago we found out that the existence of a feature that reports the search history to Microsoft, be it the search engine that is used, with the possibility of deactivation, or months ago the existence of a possible error for which sends the browsing history to the Bing API, now from Neowin it warns us of another potentially problematic function that is enabled by default.
An unreliable record on privacy
In this sense, based on the version of Edge on Canal Canary, the aforementioned publication has been able to learn more about the existence of a function called “super resolution”, which consists of automatically improving the quality of the images on the web that are find it in low resolution.
As defined by Microsoft: “super resolution improves clarity, sharpness, lighting, and contrast in images on the web.” So far so good until you get to know that the function is sending all the images that are being viewed on the web with Edge to Microsoft servers.
There is no selection of images, all that are seen are sent
In other words, the function does not screen to send the images in need of improvement, but rather sends all the images, without distinction, that are displayed with the Edge browser.
This operation can feel bad for those who usually view private family photos, where there may even be minors, being unaware that viewing them online with Edge means that these images also end up on Microsoft servers.
Steps to disable it
To disable “super resolution” you have to follow the following steps:
– Launch Microsoft Edge and open the main menu.
– Go to Settings > Privacy, Search and Services.
– Scroll down and turn off the option Image enhancement in Microsoft Edge
This will prevent further sending images to Microsoft servers, at least until the function has improvements. In this regard, in the current version available on the Canary channel, this function allows you to select specific websites for which you do not want the processing of images, allowing you to point, for example, to family image albums that can be found online.
All that remains is to wait for it to reach other users, there being those who can give it a new opportunity, as long as they give importance to seeing images with the best possible appearance.
Edge has a similar function for videos that acts locally
It is striking that Edge has a similar function but aimed at videos that makes use of Artificial Intelligence to improve them, taking the entire process locally through discrete graphics cards, without the need to send to Microsoft servers. .
Via: Neowin
