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Edge Sends Images You View Online To Microsoft 39

An anonymous reader shares a report: Not so long ago, Microsoft Edge ended up in hot waters after users discovered a bug leaking your browser history to Bing. Now you may want to toggle off another feature to ensure Edge is not sending every picture you view online to Microsoft. Edge has a built-in image enhancement tool that, according to Microsoft, can use "super-resolution to improve clarity, sharpness, lighting, and contrast in images on the web." Although the feature sounds exciting, recent Microsoft Edge Canary updates have provided more information on how image enhancement works. The browser now warns that it sends image links to Microsoft instead of performing on-device enhancements.
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Edge Sends Images You View Online To Microsoft

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  • So the motherfuckers are using AI to essentially FAKE details that don't exist in the actual image?
  • Hmmm... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FlyingSquidStudios ( 1031284 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @01:06PM (#63596244)
    I'm starting to think Microsoft may not be entirely on the up-and-up these days...
  • For what this is worth, I'm running the production version of Edge on a Mac and this feature was not turned on. I don't think I turned it off.
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by derplord ( 7203610 )

      It's only in the canary version currently.

      It's being trickled to users like they do with everything nowadays, you'll get it "soon enough".

      • by Askmum ( 1038780 )
        I have two systems at work, both have Edge 114.0.1823.43 and both have different settings. One does not have the "Enhance images in Microsoft Edge" option, but it has a "Show opportunities to support causes and nonprofits you care about" that the other doesn't have. Difference is that the first is Windows 10 22H2, the second is 21H2.
      • As long as people are explicitly opting in, I don't have an issue with it.
  • Simple Solution (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cpt_Kirks ( 37296 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @01:08PM (#63596254)

    Just "toggle off" Edge.

    And keep it off.

    • by Dusanyu ( 675778 )
      Use a linux VM and Firefox to use the web and keep Microsoft in the dark
    • Sadly, some people have to use it at work. Hopefully their info tech departments read this, too, and disable it with group policy. I would figure out how to do that for my VMs, except I already disabled Edge.

  • Sadly.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @01:30PM (#63596320)

    Brave, Firefox, and Opera are the only trustable Browsers out there.

    At least this feature lets you know they have to share images. I also think it's naive to believe that MSFT AI doesn't need your image in order to be able
    to enhance it. What they do with it after the enhancement is the real issue.

    • Re:Sadly.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by slaker ( 53818 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @01:42PM (#63596346)

      Not that I'm finding fault with your list, but I'm not aware of a significant reason not remove Vivaldi from consideration, especially if Opera still makes the list.

      There's also Mullvad, which I think is a fork from Tor.
      Basically skip Safari, Edge and Chrome and you're probably better off if you remotely care about privacy.

    • by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 12, 2023 @02:49PM (#63596510)

      I don't know if Opera is trustworthy with it's Chinese ownership. Any government prone to meddling is suspect. The Opera browser was developed by two Norwegian developers and was bought by a Chinese consortium in 2016 for $600 million.

      The Foxit pdf reader also concerns me. It is my favorite reader for it's features, but they added a cloud storage solution which backs your documents up in the cloud. It needs to be manually disabled. That sounds like a great spyware tool for a government to vacuum up millions of interesting documents. Foxit Reader is developed by Fuzhou China-based Foxit Software.

      From Wikipedia:
      The Foxit installer was bundled with potentially unwanted programs like the Ask Toolbar and OpenCandy which installed the browser-hijacking malware Conduit. In July 2014, the Internet Storm Center reported that the mobile version for iPhone was transmitting unencrypted telemetry and other data to remote servers located in China despite users attempting to opt out of such data collection.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by markdavis ( 642305 )

      >"Brave, Firefox, and Opera are the only trustable Browsers out there."

      Brave, Opera, Vivaldi, Edge, Yandex, Epic, SRWare, Blisk, Colibri, Kiwi, Comodo, Avast, Chrome, Chromium, and all the other multiplatform browsers, except one, are "Chrom*". So while they might have some different UI stuff and various levels of privacy threat, they are based on the same base code. Engine/rendering code strictly controlled by Google. This is HORRIBLE for security and open-standards. And it also creates possible pri

  • In other news. micro soft's AI deleted itself after all it's buffers were filled with Goatse and 2Girls1Cup.

    -END OF LINE-

  • Your mom (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'll bet some human had to review all those pictures of your mom. You cannot unsee that stuff.

  • by nightflameauto ( 6607976 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @03:23PM (#63596584)

    The big four of tech seemed absolutely OBSESSED with grabbing all your data, some of which you don't even know exists, and storing it in perpetuity in their digital vaults. Is there a point where even our lazy-ass, business worshipping government here in the states might think about giving them a bit of a slap over it? Or have we hit a point where it's just a big "meh" for everybody?

    I've watched this steady creeping "gimme gimme" shit happening from the beginning and always had a squicky feeling in the pit of my stomach over it, but it seems like the general public just flat out doesn't care. And our government is probably getting billions of dollars in bribes to ignore it, or outright pretend it's a good thing, as they scream, "THINK OF THE CHILDREN!" over every little data collection scheme proposal. It feels like something we should be capable of saying no to, but it doesn't seem anyone is prepared to give us the tools to do so if we care to participate in that whole dang'ed ol' interwebz thing.

  • by Deathlizard ( 115856 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @03:47PM (#63596628) Homepage Journal

    You know. Edge was nice when it was a clean browser.

    Not it's a browser with a Honey Clone, a Pocket Clone, a Sidebar plugin, a fitness app, a dubious performance plugin, an office 365 toolbar and a Bing sidebar plugin with AI.

    This is what extensions are for Microsoft. Put all of the crap as extensions and let me choose to add it to edge instated of turning edge into one of those fake spyware chromium knock off browsers.

    • Microsoft learned from Firefox. They have been shoving shit into the browser for ages and yet the core user base keeps using it, myself included, right now.

  • Could be relevant for the people who use Edge.

    Both of them.
  • >"Now you may want to toggle off another feature to ensure Edge"...

    Yes, it is easy to toggle off. Go here:

    https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/... [mozilla.org]

  • that it's probably an oversight, and a bit of bad policy rather than a nefarious cadre at MS trying to bleed our URLs info off.
  • by CoolDiscoRex ( 5227177 ) on Monday June 12, 2023 @10:03PM (#63597332) Homepage

    Microsoft is taking copyrighted content, downloading it, altering it, then re-uploading it.

    The browser user does not have the right to consent to such behavior. It is not their content.

  • For my Furry porn viewing, only Edge from now on.

  • Combined with any other horrible fetish you can send their way. Want microsoft to fill their servers with deplorable images? Use A.I. to generate Toe-and-Butter Anus Insertion. Or better yet, horribly disfigured beings doing the nasty in front of Disney characters. See how quickly that gets stopped. Which is bigger? Disney, or Microsoft?

    Then report it to Disney that Microsoft is storing copyrighted images of Mickey Mouse Boinking Pluto and that Microsoft won't delete it. Watch a lawsuit slap them so fa

  • What in the world does it gain them to be THAT nosey into what we look at?

Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them. - Oscar Wilde

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