Microsoft Edge could soon share browsing data with Windows 10

Martin Brinkmann
Mar 23, 2021
Internet, Microsoft Edge
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18

Microsoft is working on a new feature that integrates the company's Microsoft Edge web browser better with the company's Windows 10 operating system.

Called share browsing data with other Windows features, it is designed to share data from Edge, such as Favorites or visited sites, with other Windows components. Search is a prime target, and highlighted by Microsoft at the time of writing.

Basically, what this means is that users who run searches using the built-in search feature may get Edge results as well.

The new feature is being rolled out in Edge Canary currently, and it is not even activated yet even on rolled out systems.

You may check Menu > Settings > Profiles to see if the new "Share browsing data with other Windows features" option is provided. A click or tap on the option returns a description off the feature and a toggle to turn it off or on.

The description reads:

When turned on, Microsoft Edge will connect local browsing data from this profile with the rest of Windows. Turning this feature on will help you find information from your history, favorites, top sites, and recent tabs more easily using features such as the Windows Search box.

It is unclear at this point whether other Windows 10 features such as the Calendar app or Mail, will gain access to the share feature as well. Another thing that is not clear yet is whether it is enabled by default or turned off by default.

The new Microsoft Edge is not integrated as tightly as the classic version at the time of writing; this could change with the new integration feature.

Whether users will find it useful to get Edge results, e.g. visited sites, recent tabs or top sites, returned to them in search, remains to be seen, as it is easy enough to keep Edge open all the time or open the browser and run the searches directly in the browser instead.

Now You: would you use search more if it returned browsing data (from your browser of choice)? (via Techdows)

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Microsoft Edge could soon share browsing data with Windows 10
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Microsoft Edge could soon share browsing data with Windows 10
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Microsoft is working on a new feature that integrates the company's Microsoft Edge web browser better with the company's Windows 10 operating system.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Anon7 said on March 24, 2021 at 1:35 pm
    Reply

    I suspect that with WIN11 they will not let people create a local account and instead force users into creating a M$ account where everything gets synced into HQ.

    They will make it extremely difficult to use it any other way.

    First came the unstoppable updates now will come the unstoppable M$ account requirement.

    They will probably do it by having less and less apps run on the local account.

    Look at the WIN 10 S and how locked they made it.

    If people are concerned about it, i would tell you to start planning your migration to a Linux distro or OPENbsd.

  2. Anon7 said on March 24, 2021 at 1:22 pm
    Reply

    I was telling people in a different edge article how M$ wants all your browsing history and Edge is the tool for them to do it.

    I was called insane. This is what you’re up against. People don’t care.

  3. Anonymous said on March 24, 2021 at 1:37 am
    Reply

    I miss the old Microsoft. I want an OS like Windows 7, without all the cloud nonsense, apps, ugly touch interface, and data harvesting.

    1. Anonymous said on March 24, 2021 at 1:15 pm
      Reply

      I want an OS like Windows 7 too. So I just use Windows 7!

  4. Sol Shine said on March 24, 2021 at 12:22 am
    Reply

    Looks like a excuse for Microsoft to justify them indexing and collecting your private browsing history.

    This increases the number of ways to get to your browsing history without even opening the browser.

    If I was searching for info on some sensitive diseases like a vaginal infection, penis erection problem or mental illness, and my wife, kids, siblings or parents briefly used my laptop to search for some document or program with a name that contained a word that was in the info on those sensitive diseases, they would see I was searching for info on those diseases.

    Microsoft keeps attacking your privacy. They do not respect you. Evrey 6 months there is a Windows 10 upgrade that restores some settings you disabled to protect your privacy and they keep adding more.
    The more this goes on, the more they wear you down or you slip up and let them collect your private data. Once collected, it can not be undone.

    The solution is to move to another OS (Linux or macOS) and only use Windows for special cases.
    My laptop boots to Linux by default and I haven’t used Windows on it for months.

  5. Anonymous said on March 23, 2021 at 3:32 pm
    Reply

    I never installed Edge on Windows 8, as I had a premonition that something like this would happen.

  6. Herman Cost said on March 23, 2021 at 2:35 pm
    Reply

    Just another reason not to use Edge. But at least for now they apparently will let you turn this off, although I suspect it is just one other thing that those who care will have to check after every update to make sure it stays off.

  7. Mike said on March 23, 2021 at 2:03 pm
    Reply

    My browsing history belongs in two places, and two places only.

    1. In the volatile memory of the computer only while the browser is running.

    2. Sent to /dev/null, where it will never be seen by anyone ever again.

    I find the idea of people or algorithms scrutinizing everything that I have looked up over the past 6 months extremely creepy, and on the rare occasion that I want or need to save something to reference later, like when trying to solve a technical problem, I simply bookmark or save the specific page myself.

  8. John G. said on March 23, 2021 at 1:48 pm
    Reply

    Tons of people blaming Microsoft because this “share browsing data with W10” while all of them put their lives on Facebook, Tik-Tok, Twitter and so forth useless social crap media themselves.

  9. Sebas said on March 23, 2021 at 1:45 pm
    Reply

    What do you expect from a company who, when pressing on the red X button, get you Windows 10 installed on your W7 machine.

    Decency is a commodity long since gone in this God forsaken society. And yes that is meant literally.

  10. Anonymous said on March 23, 2021 at 1:43 pm
    Reply

    If only my doctor was half as efficient at gather my health information!

  11. Anonymous said on March 23, 2021 at 1:37 pm
    Reply

    Yes people are deceived by surveillance capitalists, they are abusing their power on us. No people are not to “blame for their own choices”, that’s how surveillance capitalists escape their responsibility.

    1. Yet Another Jason said on March 26, 2021 at 6:51 pm
      Reply

      Instead of focusing on “capitalists” and ignoring the various other dimensions of privacy intrusion, why not speak instead of “mass surveillance” or something more generic like that? Because that’s what is going on. There are well known non-profit charities and NGO’s, not to mention gargantuan government agencies, that are subjecting us to an increasing amount of mass surveillance using the same tricks as Silicon Valley.

      To put it more bluntly, the source of the rectal probe is not as important as the fact that a rectal probe is taking place. This problem goes way beyond any particular economic system. Organizations and governments are doing it simply because THEY CAN.

  12. Fred Smith said on March 23, 2021 at 1:35 pm
    Reply

    Now I know why I have my own DNS, DHCP, Firewall and use FreeBSD and Linux ;-)

    1. Anonymous said on March 23, 2021 at 2:08 pm
      Reply

      They will come to you too. They are already in.

  13. owl said on March 23, 2021 at 7:19 am
    Reply

    From my 40 years of business and personal knowledge and experience, it is an open secret that Google, Microsoft, Chinese products, and Russian products “plan to exploit personal information cunningly.” Yes, those products are totally unreliable. That is, I never use Microsoft’s browser.
    However, it has also been found that most home users and mobile users are not interested in “dignity of personal information”. Microsoft’s “such new features” will be welcomed, because they are interested in “free, comfortable, convenient, and state-of-the-art technology.”

  14. Steve said on March 23, 2021 at 7:11 am
    Reply

    Also known as, more ways to f_ck with your privacy and gain data about everything you do or search for.

    I’m starting to believe generations after the 90s are trading their souls, a_ses, brains, etc. in exchange for convenience. Because mostly they are the ones coding software and making others follow their insanity.

    @Martin -> off topic: “Lastest Posts” is still not showing the latest articles (at least, this one.)

    1. owl said on March 23, 2021 at 7:40 am
      Reply

      @Steve,
      > I’m starting to believe generations after the 90s are trading their souls, a_ses, brains, etc. in exchange for convenience.

      I totally agree.
      I am keenly aware of the “generation gap” in the workplace and society.
      Most people are more interested in “apparently free” and “convenience” than “dignity of personal information”, and for that reason, “it is okay to give out personal information”. People do not learn from the past, nor do they learn from others (after all, other people’s affairs). They are upset for the first time when They are suffers damage to themselves, but They are only grudges that They have been “deceived” rather than the result of their own choice.

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