Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser may share the same source code as Google Chrome, but new research has revealed that it may have more telemetry than other browsers, putting user privacy at risk. According to the software giant, telemetry refers to system data that is downloaded using telemetry components or a browser's built-in services. Microsoft has also been using telemetry data for some time in Windows 10 to identify problems and to analyze and resolve problems in its operating system. To better understand what data is shared by popular web browsers, Chair of IT Systems at Trinity College Ireland, Professor Douglas J Leith tested Microsoft Edge, based on Chromium, Google Chrome, Brave, Yandex, Firefox and Apple's Firefox. Unfortunately, Microsoft Edge did not perform well in the various privacy tests conducted by Leith.
Telemetry in Microsoft Edge
During his Microsoft Edge test, Leith observed that every URL typed into the browser would be sent back to Microsoft sites. For example, every URL entered in Edge's address bar is shared with Bing and other Microsoft services like SmartScreen. Leith also discovered that the browser sends Microsoft unique hardware identifiers that cannot be easily changed or removed. He provided more detail on these identifiers and how Microsoft Edge is similar to Yandex from a privacy perspective in his article on the subject, titled "Web Browser Privacy: What Do Browsers Say When They Call Home?", saying: "From the point From a confidentiality standpoint, Microsoft Edge and Yandex are qualitatively different from the other browsers studied. Both send persistent identifiers that can be used to link requests (and the associated IP address/location) to back-end servers. Edge also sends the UUID device hardware to Microsoft and Yandex also transmits a hashed hardware identifier to the main servers.As far as we can tell, users cannot disable this behavior.As well as the auto-complete search feature that shares details of visited web pages , both transmit information about web pages to servers that do not appear to be related to autocomplete search. Unlike its consumer version, Microsoft Edge for Business gives administrators much more control over deployments and they can disable all of these trackers. However, trackers are always enabled by default in all Edge installations.- We've also highlighted the best VPN services.