Microsoft Edge users may have seen a new feature labelled “Follow Creators.”
Edge 112.0.1722.34 and later versions support this functionality. Users can now follow to their preferred creators and receive notifications whenever they publish their content.
However, when the Follow Creator feature is enabled, the Edge browser transmits the web address of each site you visit to Bing, specifically to bingapis.com. This compromises users’ privacy.
If you’re concerned about your privacy, you can disable this function in Edge. Before we dive into the steps on how to disable it, let us first understand what this feature is and why Microsoft introduced it.
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What is the Follow Creators Feature?
With Microsoft Edge’s new Follow function, you can now keep up with your favourite bloggers, YouTubers, and social media influencers.
Any time the creator you’re following publishes new content, whether it’s an article, a video, or a social media update, you’ll get a notification. You can also find new creators and follow them straight from the Microsoft Edge browser.
Why Disable Follow Creators?
The Follow feature can be helpful for keeping up with your favourite creators.
However, a Redditor discovered that with Follow Creator enabled, Edge update 112.0.1722.34 and later appears to send every website URL visited by a user to Bing.
Initially intended to monitor YouTube activity, the feature has inadvertently ended up tracking all visited pages.
The Reddit report suggests that the Follow feature, which was initially limited to social sites like YouTube, may now have been extended to all sites visited by users.
Alternatively, this could be a bug on Microsoft’s part. It is important for Edge users to know that their website visits are being tracked and sent to bingapis.com, potentially compromising their privacy.
Until Microsoft releases a patch, one way to protect your privacy is to disable the Follow Creator feature. Here’s how you can do it right now.
How to Disable Follow Creators Feature?
Disabling the Follow feature is a simple process that can be done in a few easy steps.
Step 1: Open Microsoft Edge, then copy and paste this “edge://settings/privacy” in the URL bar or address bar and press Enter.
Step 2: Scroll down and locate the “Services” section
Step 3: Toggle off the “Show Suggestions to follow creators” option.
Step 4: Restart the browser.
That should fix it. When Microsoft releases a fix for the problem, you’ll be able to turn on the option again and use the function normally.