Microsoft Edge accused of leaking user browsing history to Bing chatbot 

By Ankita ChakravartiDo you use Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, which is based on ChatGPT, often? Well, the chatbot most probably has information about the sites you visit, courtesy Microsoft Edge. The browser has been accused of leaking user browser history to Bing, the search engine that can have a ChatGPT-like conversation with the users.

Some Reddit users have discovered a potential privacy concern with Microsoft’s Edge browser. It appears that the latest version of the browser sends requests containing the full URLs of almost every page visited to bingapis.com. This has raised concerns about the collection of personal data without the user’s consent. Microsoft has acknowledged the reports, it told The Verge, that it is investigating the matter.

Highlighting Microsoft Edge’s flaw, a Reddit user named hackermchackface wrote, “Searching for references to this URL give very few results, no documentation on this feature at all.”

Microsoft has a feature in their web browser called “follow creators” that allows users to keep up with their favorite content creators. However, it seems like this feature sends all the websites a user visits to a separate website called bingapis.com, even ones that are not related to content creators. This can be a privacy concern, especially since the feature is turned on by default.

Microsoft is aware of this issue and is looking into it. They have not yet explained why this is happening or how to stop it from happening. “We’re aware of reports, are investigating and will take appropriate action to address any issues,” says Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, in a statement to The Verge

Until Microsoft resolves this issue, it is recommended that users turn off the “follow creators” feature. This can be done by navigating to the settings in Microsoft Edge, choosing the Privacy, Search and Services tab, and scrolling down to Services. Then, toggle off the switch next to “Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge.”

Notably, Bing search is using an upgraded version of AI technology that powers the ChatGPT. The technology is developed by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Microsoft unveiled these updates a day after Google unveiled Bard, its ChatGPT rival. Bard uses Google’s own language model called LaMDA, while ChatGPT leverages the GPT 3 module.

Microsoft says that Bing is running on a new OpenAI large language model that is “more powerful than ChatGPT and customised specifically for search.” The new tech takes learning and advancements from ChatGPT and GPT-3.5 to more accurate replies.