Microsoft Edge added a feature in January 2022 that allowed users to follow content creators like YouTubers. However, according to online reports, this “Flow Creators” feature appears to be bugged in the latest update. When it comes to data privacy, the problem is quite large because the URL of every website sent to the Bing API servers is apparently “bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb/isfollowable”. This is because Follow Creators appears to be enabled by default at all times in the latest version, which means that every URL or domain visited.
The issue was first discovered by a Reddit user. hackermchackface A few days ago. He wrote:
What caused Edge to leak all visited URLs after the latest update? The API is: bingapis.com/api/v7/followweb/isfollowable?
A GET request includes the full URL of each page being navigated to.
Searching for references to this URL returns very few results, there is no documentation on this feature. Json shows the response type as “Followable Status” which returns zero Google results, which is very rare.
Microsoft MVP and Stardock Engineer Rafael Rivera gave the following statement to The Verge:
Microsoft Edge now has a Creator Follow feature that’s enabled by default, apparently intended to notify Bing when you’re on certain pages, such as YouTube, The Verge, and Reddit. But it doesn’t seem to work properly, instead sending almost every domain you visit to Bing.
Microsoft has responded to The Verge confirming that it is aware of such reports. Caitlin Rolston, director of communications at Microsoft, said:
We are aware of the reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to resolve any issues.
We will update this article when more updates are here.
through: the edge
